Deviation 016: Spider
by NicktheHuman
Summary: In an alternate reality, contact with Zero Two's blood causes Hiro to undergo a genetic mutation at a far younger age, although with his unique biology, it varies from hers in a way none could have guessed. Spurred by the change and unable to remember why, it alters Hiro's personality and thought process as he grows, unable to pilot. Then, he meets Zero Two and it all goes sideways
1. Wall-Crawler

Disclaimer: This is purely a fan work and I own nothing

You really don't need to be a Marvel fan to understand this story, so long as you have a basic understanding of Spider-Man's power set (Spider Sense, Proportional Strength and Durability of a spider, acrobatic ability, wall crawling.)

* * *

I think I'll always remember the day, as a child, I realized I was different from the other children in the Garden. One, because such an abnormality was not something one would ever forget, but secondly, because remembering the change is what made me aware that there were gaps in my memory in the first place.

Ichigo was still often upset at being so different from the other children. They didn't cry or laugh anymore. The only thing they ever really seemed to show was disdain for those who were different. As we were called inside for bed, she cried, harder than I'd seen her cry in a while.

"What's wrong, Ichigo?" I asked. I always felt a need to protect her, really. Not because she was incapable, but because we were so similar. So different from the others.

She wiped her eyes, in an attempt to seem tougher, pretending she hadn't just been bawling. "They...they threw my bunny up onto that ledge." Her voice betrayed her intentions with a noticeable quiver, and she pointed up to a small ledge along the outdoor play area wall. A small lip on the otherwise vertical, cold, steel wall jutted out, and a small plush bunny sat on top of it.

"I'll get it!" I assured her. "Just cover for me, I'll be inside in a minute."

Ichigo shook, slightly, but smiled to her feet. "Thank you, Hiro..."

I ran over to the wall, resting my palm against it and realized how stupid it was for me to speak without thinking. The lip was so high up. How was I supposed to get there without a tree to climb like last time?

...Last time?

The thought stuck out in my head. Had I climbed a tree to get to something? I was so sure of it, but I couldn't remember ever having done so. But the more I tried to think about it, the more my head stung. Have I forgotten something? If I did, it seemed...meaningful?

I was snapped from the thought as a small spider climbed the wall next to my hand. "This must be really easy for you. Wish I could..."

Playfully, I placed my other hand against the wall and pretended to climb against wall. To my shock and surprise, my hands clung to the flat, smooth surface effortlessly, and I nearly yelped in surprise. I tried with my feet, but the shoes weren't sticking. I quickly kicked them off and stuck my toes against the wall as well. To my surprise and, at the time, delight, it worked; I was clinging to the flat surface of the wall. Carefully, I climbed the vertical wall up to the lip, and sat myself on it, grabbing Ichigo's stuffed bunny.

I smiled down at the stuffed rabbit. How had I done that? It was nothing short of amazing, in my eyes, to be able to climb a wall. I couldn't do this yesterday or the day before.

So, what changed?

That was when I realized I was missing a big chunk of the last few months. There was a noticeable gap in the winter time. I remembered walking in the snow. I remembered not being alone after the tests. But...

That as far as I got. I furrowed my brows. Why wasn't I questioning this? I asked lots of questions, right? Didn't I?

I did...and the Adults didn't like it. Maybe that's why the Adults seemed happier with me now, I stopped. But WHY did I stop?

"YOU!" A voice made me jump, nearly knocking me from the ledge. "Code 016! What are you doing up there?"

So much for Ichigo covering me, I figured. I opened my mouth to say I climbed, but my head began to buzz, and I was overcome with a feeling of dread. For whatever reason, an intuitive voice in my head made me feel like it would be a bad idea, maybe even dangerous, if I told them the truth.

"I don't know!" I told them, cheerfully lying.

"Stay there, we'll get you down..." The Adult grunted, angrily.

Since that day, I decided that keeping my abilities secret was for the best. From a young age, I knew that I was already teetering the line by being so odd, naming my friends, and questioning everything.

But it became increasingly clear to me in the upcoming weeks that more was changing in me than just sticky hands and feet. Mitsuru, who became really angry with me in the last few months, kept throwing things at me. The buzzing in my head always started before the object ever left his hands. The same buzzing always started when an Adult would take a Child from the Garden, and they never returned. I figured out that it was something of an alarm, a sixth sense that warned me of imminent danger, although the danger wasn't always clear. Thrown objects were easy to dodge. Children leaving forever were...outside of my realm of influence.

Speaking of dodging, that was a weird one too. I don't know if it was the tests or a side effect of whatever changed in me, but once I figured out my Inner Alarm as I called it, I knew to jump to the side whenever Mitsuru was going throw something. But the first time I did it, I sprung about ten feet to the left, while doing a flip in the air, freaking out all the other children in the room.

"What was THAT, Hiro?!" Ichigo had asked in amazement.

"I uh...ate more fruit this morning," I lied, lamely.

It wasn't just the leg muscles either. My throwing arm seemed to pack more of a punch, too. Playing catch with Goro one time, I threw the ball a bit too hard and broke his glasses. He didn't speak to me for a few days.

Still, as the weeks went on, and the...deviations became more apparent, I struggled to keep them hidden. The hardest part was knowing when more of my friends would vanish forever.

And right behind that was trying to figure out where and when this started. I had always done special testing at the Garden. But then there was a blank spot in my mind, and the testing stopped. All I could remember was a mistletoe tree, and snow. I wasn't alone, but I had no idea who was with me, be they boy, girl, animal, human...just that someone was with me.

The only thing that made sense to me was that it was some test they had done had given me a nasty side effect. But it didn't explain the half-memories either.

Finally, it came a day where all the Children in the Garden were taken to the Garden for Yellow Blood Cell injections and further testing. The second I stepped inside, the buzzing in my head, the Warning Alarm, began. When they attempted injecting me with the blood cells, the syringe needle bent and snapped against my skin.

"What...?" Was all the Adult caretaker could utter. After composing himself a bit, he turned to the other Adult assisting him and commanded, "Get Dr. Franxx down here."

The name itself made my head buzz more, a migraine setting in. The minutes dragged on as I waited. Was I in trouble? I hadn't done anything on purpose, not this time.

After an eternity, a man with half a metal face finally appeared. Despite the warnings, he spoke in an amicable tone. More so than the other adults. "Hello 016. We have a new needle for you, but I want to ask: have you been feeling differently lately?"

"Y..." I began, but the buzzing became almost violent as a warning, and I switched. "You know, I don't think so."

"I see." The Doctor muttered, tone neutral. "Well then, we'll get you done with a few more tests, and send you after the others from your Garden. They already finished up."

He produced a different syringe. This one was...huge. I cringed as they injected me with yellow blood cells.

But I noticed my dosage looked smaller than everyone else's.

Not much longer later, they let me go, alone, to walk back to the Garden. The whole scene seemed familiar.

I looked up towards a window by a tree, and my head seemed to fill with static.

Despite the green landscape, I could feel snow on my skin, and I could hear a scream. A pained scream.

The powers. The memories. That window had to have something to do with it, right? It had to. This was the most I remembered, and it all started with the window. I had to get to it. I had to look in. She was waiting for me.

She? I shook the thought. There was something going on here, and I had to figure it out.

Looking around to make sure it was clear, I ran over to the wall, kicked off my shoes, and clung to the wall with ease. As I inched my way up to the window, my heart began to race, and for the life of me, I couldn't begin to understand why. What was up there? I felt like this was familiar, though I knew last time, I had climbed the tree. But what was last time? I'd done this before, but why couldn't I remember it?

As I reached into the window, I looked inside eagerly, only to find...

An empty room.

I don't know what I had been expecting, but this wasn't it. Seeing the empty room made me feel empty inside too. Why did I want to cry? I didn't even know what was _supposed_ to be in there.

As I went to climb down, I spied something on the floor that gave me pause.

A shard of glass.

Static hit my head once more. I remember that. I DID that. I could see it now, glass shattering as I threw a light through the window. To get in?

No.

I was helping something...someone get out.

Why?

What happened after?

Whatever happened to me is why I'm different. And whatever happened to me is why my memory had gaps.

For the first time in a long time, I felt angry. Furious. Something important got taken from me by this place, and there was a feeling of helplessness as I couldn't even remember what or who it was, or why.

* * *

That was years ago. Now, as I sat outside of Plantation Thirteen under the trees, I stared up at the domed sky feeling more helpless than ever. Even now, despite my deviation, despite the strength and speed that came with my secret, I couldn't save anyone; it was a distraction, a way I passed the time. Despite the way my abilities grew, my compatibility scores for piloting a Franxx dropped.

I wasn't strong enough on my own to fight a Klaxosaur, even with all my abilities, and I couldn't pilot a Franxx. What good was I?

In my reading, I learned of a bird called a Jian. They only have one wing and lean on each other in male and female pairs to fly.

Pitiful. Like me, I guess.

But at times, I felt more like a black widow. While a lot of the books had redacted the details, they were a type of spider that devoured their partners after partnering. I wasn't sure what that meant thanks to whatever censorship Papa had in place, but I felt more akin to something like that.

I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering my failed compatibility with Naomi.

Why stay here? I couldn't be a Parasite. I couldn't pilot a Franxx. Maybe going back to the Garden, I could at least help someone with my strength.

I saw a bird smack into the dome window, distracting me from my moping. Or, brooding as I liked to call it. "Ten out of ten, good job buddy."

The quipping sort of just came with the bitterness, I think. Ever since I saw that empty room, I became very...discontent with my life situation, and the inability to pilot didn't help. Goro called it a defense mechanism. I liked to think it was just a budding, charming personality.

My thoughts were dashed as a ship passed by overhead. "Visitors, huh? That's new."

For a split second, I felt eyes on me, but it passed. It was nothing like my usual Alarm, but something told me things were about to change.

I decided to follow that bird after a while longer of moping about. See if it was okay. Ichigo would worry after I was gone for so long, especially since I skipped out on the briefing, but maybe I wouldn't feel like a total failure if I could help that bird. Not that I wanted to see my squad mates go on to plot Franxx without me. Nothing against them, but the constant reminder of, "Hey Hiro, you're a big fat failure," was nothing I needed to live with.

A splashing noise snapped me back to reality. I looked over to a small lake and saw movement, so I walked over there out of natural curiosity. I spied some clothes on the ground and didn't recognize them. They weren't our uniforms. They actually seemed a lot cooler. I always liked the color red. I absentmindedly picked up a piece of cloth.

I looked out and saw some sort of female figure go under the water.

"Lovely place to drown, but I should probably stop that," I muttered to myself.

Now, it's been a long time since anything took me by surprise. My Inner Alarm always alerted me to impending danger, but it was vague. Still, life here was pretty routine, so nothing really came as a shock anymore.

But as this girl with flowing pink hair and horns leapt out of the water, I was in utter shock, for a few reasons. First, she was naked. Second, she had a pair of bright, red horns. Third, she was naked. Fourth, she had a fish in her mouth, which, according to what I read, only bears did that. Fifth: NAKED.

Rooted to the spot, I watched in awe as the girl spit the fish out of her mouth. "Well, what are you staring for? Are you going for a swim?"

Oof. Great first impression. From behind her, I saw the bird I had been tracking down take to the sky, and give me a look that echoed, "Ten out of ten, good job, buddy."

"S-sorry, I thought you were drowning!" I stuttered, averting my eyes from her. Did I mention she was naked? "I jumped in to try and prevent said drowning. But you're not. And this is awkward."

To my relief, she laughed and began to walk out of the water, and I followed suit. My shoes were soaked, which was always a crappy feeling. The mysterious girl scanned the area, and then looked to me, making me blush. "You're a pervert, aren't you?"

I looked down at my hand and realized the cloth I had picked up earlier was her underwear.

I was really nailing this introduction, so I held out my hand and looked away. "I-I didn't realize! I'm sorry!"

Again, she burst out laughing, doubling over, and taking the undergarment from me. "You should see the look on your face!" She straightened herself out. "But hey, you really were trying to save me, huh? Thank you, that's sweet."

"Well, I operate on a, 'see something, do something,' basis, so it seemed right." I replied, rubbing the back of my neck.

"I also appreciate that you didn't seem afraid of my horns. I like that."

It was a bit out of the ordinary, but I'm sure I might get an odd look from her if she saw me hanging off the ceiling, so who am I to judge? Maybe she had a weird mutation like me?

"I don't see them as anything to be afraid of." I answered, with a small smile. This seemed to make her really happy, and she gave me one back.

As she got dressed, she eyed my uniform. "Are you a Parasite?"

I frowned. Ah yes. The reason I was out here brooding in the first place. I turned toward the water and picked up a rock to skip. "No. I'm nothing."

From the corner of my eye, I saw her tilt her head. "No partner?"

"Not that. I lost my ability to Pilot a long time ago. I forget how, but I've just never been able to connect with someone. I don't have a future here. I don't belong." I skipped the rock, careful to use a minimal amount of strength, and managed seven skips. Nice.

"So, you're all alone, huh?" She asked. But she didn't even give me a chance to answer. "Just like me, thanks to the horns."

I felt her walk behind me, and I turned as she continued. "I bet your ability is still lying dormant in there. If you don't have a future, make one. If you don't belong here, find a place you do. And if you don't have a partner..."

For the second time, she surprised me by tackling me to the ground. Even with my enhanced power and durability, she was surprisingly strong as my back hit the shallows, soaking my uniform. My heart raced and my chest tightened. As I looked in her green eyes, hovering right over mine, and I felt a little lightheaded. "Take one!"

Somehow, this girl didn't set off my Inner Alarm. Maybe because she was just being playful, but I didn't feel like I was in danger with her. I felt a weird, new excitement within me as she leaned down and licked the side of my face. "Your taste makes my heart race, there's a bite with a sense of danger...and adventure."

"Yup. That's me. Mr. Adventure." I replied, cringing. That was a terrible response.

She giggled though and stood up. "How would you like to be my darling?"

"Darling, huh?" I asked, sitting up. She reached out her hand to help me, and I began to reach for it. "That's like a partner, I'm guessing? That...sounds familiar."

The response wasn't one she was anticipating, and she tilted her head again, eyebrows furrowing. "Does it, now?"

My Inner Alarm went off, and I heard footsteps as a man shouted, "There you are! Why do you run off on your own?"

The girl's face fell as men in a similar uniform to hers approached, carrying guns. "Nevermind, I guess...too bad."

I watched, confused, as she left with them, but stood up and jogged over to the group. "Wait! What's your name?"

"Name...?" She looked to her feet. A forlorn expression was etched on her face, like she was reminiscing on something. "I don't have one. I'm Code 002. But you can just call me 02."

"Let's go," commanded one of the men with her, and they began to walk off.

I watched them go, half tempted to give chase. This was different. Did this girl really think she could operate a Franxx with me?

I shook the thought from my head. I needed to get back and prepare to leave with Naomi. The thought alone made the excitement in my chest die down.

Well, may as well have fun getting back.

I jumped onto the branch of a tree and began leaping from limb to limb towards the living quarters. Besides my friends, I'd miss going out to the forest to practice my abilities most of all.

Of course, as it turned out, I wasn't leaving any time soon...


	2. Changes

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get Zero Two from my head. I wanted a partner. I wanted to PILOT. Denying it was useless. After all, they told us it was our one purpose, the whole reason us Children were created by Papa and APE in the first place.

So why could I do this? I pondered, hanging from the ceiling by my toes and fingertips. Why make me so...different, if just to be thrown away.

I checked the time. I needed to see of Naomi and get going myself. The others were at the ceremony, and I figured maybe that was the best time to go.

* * *

Standing next to Naomi as we waited for transport, was almost as awkward as my first encounter with female nudity. "You should stay, Hiro."

I looked up at her, confused. Half an hour of silence, and she says _that?_

"So why aren't you? Did you refuse because of me?"

I looked forward at the oncoming transportation. Naomi and I were never...close. But I didn't really confide in anyone, if they got too close, I was worried they'd discover I had a few Arachnid-like quirks to my personality. "No. I don't do anyone any good here."

"That's just like you." There was a bitterness in her voice, and I flinched. "Favoritism or not, I would love to stay. You're just running from your partner, your squad, and yourself."

Ouch.

"How many of our friends vanished from the Garden, Hiro? How many?"

Hundreds. I had lost count. "I don't know, Naomi."

"We could end like them at any time. And you want to play the martyr. I'd stay even if it killed me."

I turned toward her and frowned. "Naomi."

"Why..." She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face, "why did you have to be my partner?! The most closed off, selfish person here?"

My heart sank as she stepped towards the transport. "Naomi...I..."

She wasn't wrong. How long have I been shutting out my Squad? Even to protect my identity, I didn't let anyone close. They could never read me.

"We won't see each other again." She turned and threw her suitcase at me. Even with my Inner Alarm, I paused to catch it. "I really like the name you chose for me, Hiro. You have another chance. Don't you think you have a responsibility to yourself and your friends to take it?"

I paused as the gate closed in front of her, and the transport began to move. "Wait!"

"You can just take the next one," the escort grunted. "Honestly, so much drama in this test team..."

The two of us stood, in uncomfortable silence as we waited. I watched the transport pod fade into the distance and another one pulled up. I contemplated whether or not I should step in... until my head began to buzz in warning. "What's going on?!" I yelled to the guard.

"What do you mean - OH DAMN!"

A blue spike ripped from the ground, flipping the transport pod as it tore the earth asunder. "NAOMI!" I screamed.

But then I saw it. A giant, behemoth of a creature, black and glowing blue, roar from the distance as it eyed Plantation Thirteen.

A Klaxosaur. The creatures that justified the existence of us Children and the Franxx in the first place. "If I'd known it was coming, I'd have made a roast," I joked nervously, to the guard, but I turned to see he had already fled. "Gee, thanks for the protection..."

As it drew near the plantation, I wondered if there was anything I could do; not like I could punch my way into its core. Cannons and guns sprouted from the plantation walls and began firing upon the beast, but it did nothing.

The platform I was on began to shake under my feet, and began to give way, so I went barefoot, ran down the hand wailing of the plantation, and took a big leap to cling to the plantation wall, climbing up higher to get a better look as the massive beast that was beginning to push against one of our bases.

But then something came tearing through the grounds after it. A quadrupedal, cat-like robot. "Is that a Franxx? Didn't think they looked like that..." Perched on the side of the plant, I wondered if the squad would be jealous of me having the best seat in the house for this fight as the Franxx and Klaxosaur began to throw down.

I rethought that though once the Franxx took some stiff canon fire and came flying right towards where I had been standing. I ran along the side of the wall to avoid the impact zone, but still nearly fell when the Franxx crashed through the plantation wall. I whipped around to look at the wreckage, and my head buzzed again, though it was a different sort this time. "I need to check for survivors."

Running back, I flipped onto a loose railing, down to a light post, and then finally the ground near the mouth of the automated beast. I approached, but flinched slightly as the hatch flew open, and a body rolled out to the ground.

It was a banged up man who had been there when Zero Two was ushered away by that group at the lake. "Hey, are you alright?!"

I went to check his pulse, but I heard a familiar voice call. "Don't bother...he's dead."

I checked anyway, and she was right. I looked up to see Zero Two, leaning against the door frame. She didn't exactly seem to be in much better shape than her deceased partner, but she was at least on her feet. "Hey, are you alright? I can get you to the medical bay..."

"Are you blind...? I'm in the middle of monster hunting."

Her tone was far different from the flirtatious one she had taken at the lake. It was hardened. She was used to this sort of thing, wasn't she? "You're going to pilot this thing? Alone?"

She turned, barely staying on her own two feet. "I need to go."

I climbed up to the door frame. "Wait! Come on, you're in no condition to-"

"Get off me!" Her hand flailed back towards me, and my Inner Alarm gave me just enough time to duck my head out of the way. She clawed away from me, towards her pilot seat.

"You can't go fight that thing on your own," I insisted. "Franxx can't even be piloted alone...?" I said that, but I wasn't so sure of it. After all, hers was like nothing I'd seen before.

"I'm always alone. Always have been." There was a sadness in her voice, and it made my head hurt. She was wrong. How did I know she was wrong? I hadn't gotten a headache like this since I was a kid. "I'm used to it."

"You'll die out there on your own." I pleaded. I had to be able to save someone. After letting Naomi down, I had to be able to save one person. Please, let me be strong enough for that at the least.

"And if I die?" The hardness of her voice returned, with interest. "That thing is going to start moving again. And if it does, this whole place dies. I'm not afraid of death. It doesn't matter if I am or not, I have a job to do."

In that moment, I felt powerless, but my Inner Alarm buzzed, alerting me to a piece of metal railing falling at me. I reached up, grabbed it from the air, and threw it aside. Thankfully, Zero Two hadn't been looking. But it reminded me...

I'm not powerless.

She said my ability was still lying in there, dormant, right? Well, no better time to find out. "Then I'm going with you. I'm not going to let you go out there and do this on your own. Not when I'm right here."

She stopped and looked back at me, amused. "Oh? And are you prepared to die?"

It wasn't a question I had an answer for, but thankfully I had my wits about me. "Who says we're going to die? I don't belong anywhere, so it may as well be here." A tear slid down my cheek. This really was a last-ditch effort. "You told me to take a partner, right? I'm taking this. You're not doing this alone."

Her tone and expression softened, and she reached down to wipe the moisture off my face. "We're not so different, you and me. I haven't seen a human cry in a long time...and I like the look in your eyes. It makes my heart race."

She held out her hand, and as I met her eyes, I knew what she meant. For some reason, just the look of this girl meant my heart pound in my ears. What was this? As I took her hand, my heartbeat only grew more frantic as she pulled me closer, towards the piloting seats.

"Let me get a taste of you...let me kiss you..."

"Kiss...?" I echoed, feeling a bit dizzy as she pulled me close.

"After all… you are now my darling!" She pulled me into her and pressed her lips against mine. Despite never having felt something like this before, my lips reciprocated, as if they'd known for years that this was what they were meant for. Colors exploded behind my eyes and my heart felt like it could jump from my chest at any moment.

If this is what kissing was, screw dying. I needed more of this in my life.

As we collapsed into the Pilot seat, the Franxx sprung to life. It changed form as well, becoming humanoid. I was only vaguely aware of this, as I leaned back into the seat of the Franxx. Everything seemed blurry. I could feel the controls in my hands, see Zero Two in front of me in the pistil position. I could feel us fighting the Klaxosaur, and my own hands thrusting the spear of the Franxx through its center. But at the same time, I could still feel her lips on mine, and something...something new awaken inside me.

Before I knew it, it was over. I wonder if everyone's first time was like that? But the Klaxosaur was dead, its core shattered, and it's blue blood raining down upon on our Franxx.

But still. I had flown. And I was filled with...well, I was filled with a lot of feelings after kissing Zero Two, but moreso, I had hope. I can't remember the last time I felt hope in a future of flying.

The world was still blurry and spinning as Zero Two took my hand and helped me from the seat. I leaned against her as we stood on the viewing platform of her Franxx. I could see my squadmates down on the ground below, yelling something to me.

"Darling...are you alright?" I heard Zero Two ask. Despite being right next to me, she sounded like she was miles away.

"I'm fine...I think..." I answered, but my words slurred, and I felt my eyelids droop. "You know what? I'm going to take a nap."

And with that, I collapsed against the platform. Smooth one, Hiro.

* * *

"Morning already?" I groaned, rolling over and hitting my alarm. I knew I had to get up, and I could hear my squadmates stirring as well. Zorome and Mitsuru left without a word to me, which, was pretty normal. They didn't seem very fond of.

"How are you, Hiro?" Goro asked, as he put on his glasses. "Feeling okay? Kind of gave us a scare just collapsing like that.

"I'm alright." I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Well, alright probably was an understatement.

I had flown. I had operated a Franxx, and I had kissed someone. I don't even know what the second one means, but the memory still made me feel...things.

"Good! Will you be joining us for the startup ritual today?" Goro asked, beaming.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Wasn't that yesterday?"

"It was, but the Klaxosaur attack interrupted the whole thing!" Futoshi said, shoving an entire roll in his mouth. Where had he gotten that? Did he bring it to bed last night?

"Oh...well, yeah, I'll be sure to do so!" I gave Goro a grin. He and Ichigo were still perhaps the two friends I still had here. As I sat up, I began to feel incredibly itchy on both of my forearms. Absentmindedly, I began scratching both.

"I'm glad you'll be there. But Nana and some of the other adults wanted you to report to them after breakfast."

"Can't imagine why," I quipped as I buttoned my blazer.

"Might have something to do with the Franxx piloting you did yesterday," Goro laughed.

"No one ever notices my haircut. Why can't it be that?"

"You haven't gotten a haircut in months, Hiro."

"I know, I've been waiting for someone to notice the last one."

* * *

"...and while we are grateful, you are not permitted to pilot Strelizia with Zero Two again until you receive further clearance." Hachi explained.

"Gee, you're welcome." I deadpanned.

"That attitude again..."

It was a lot to take in. More medical tests were run on me to check my yellow blood cell count, and Nana and Hachi explained to me that the girl I had piloted was a frontline fighter, a girl with Klaxosaur blood in her veins.

But I could tell they weren't giving me the full story.

"Now go watch your squad's ceremony," Nana advised, smiling. "They'll be happy to know you're staying for the time being."

I nodded, but they were already looking to each other, it being pretty clear they weren't done talking about me. As I left the small conference room, Dr. Franxx passed me to go in and talk to them.

"Ah, 016. Good job out there. She's something, isn't she?"

I wasn't entirely sure if he meant Zero Two or Strelizia, so I just smiled and nodded. "Definitely."

He walked inside and I could hear him say, "so what did you tell him?"

"Be quiet, doctor!" Nana scolded.

I furrowed my brow. Well, if they weren't done talking about me, I don't think I'm ready to be done with them, either.

Checking for anyone in sight, I picked off my shoes and scaled the wall, pushing open an air vent cover over the next room.

Most air vents are, of course, not big enough for a person to sneak through, but when you can cling to them on your stomach and stick to them, it makes it easier. As I crawled the structure over to the room I had just been in, I pressed my ear to the vent to listen.

"I'd call it fate if I believed in such a notion." The doctor chuckled.

"This is serious, doctor!" Nana sounded like she was at the end of her rope. "No Stamen has ever survived more than 3 rides with Zero Two."

Huh. That's a lovely detail that was left out of my conversations with her. Or any of the Adults for that matter.

"But his compatibility scores with her are off the charts." Hachi added. "It's a shame. But she's needed on the front lines, we can't have him Pilot with her more."

"Well, I'm not sure what you needed me in here for if you were just going to tell me you weren't going to let them ride together until APE says so," the doctor huffed. "We knew what effect their interaction would have on 016."

"How long will she be staying here?" Nana asked, a noticeable scowl in her tone.

"Few days," the doctor answered. "Run 016 through a few tests in the meantime. I see you'll find I'm right."

Right about what?

The three left the room, leaving me in a surprisingly clean air vent with more questions than answers. What effect did Dr. Franxx mean? And I didn't know what was worse: the fact that two more rides with Zero Two would kill me, or that they wouldn't let me ride with her again at all.

Shifting onto my back, I placed my arms behind my head to think. I did my best thinking in air vents, for whatever reason. A partner killer? Three times?

I thought back to Zero Two, and my forearms began to itch again, more furiously than they had this morning. Annoyed, I rolled back my sleeves and brought one to my face, only to be surprised by a small mound on my underarms with a slit. What was this? This was new.

Was this because I piloted with her? Was this how she killed partners? I meant it didn't hurt, it just felt tingly when I thought about her.

My mind drifted back to the day before, and inevitably, back to our kiss, as she called it. As I recalled the sensation of her lips against mine, the mound on my forearm began to tremble as well until –

THWIP!

My eyes shot open in alarm. From my forearm, pointed to the top of the vent, had shot out some sort of sticky, white thread had shot from the slit. I gave it a tug, snapping the thread from my wrist, and examined it again. It was like a spider web of some kind. I looked down to my arm. The veins leading up to the mound were bluer and more pronounced than normal, but nothing felt painful.

I began to crawl from the vent, an urgency in my movements. This…this had NEVER happened. Something about Zero Two had, indeed, changed me. Just how much, I needed to go and see for myself.

I was going to Pilot again. No more running away. The only things I felt around Zero Two were good, and I finally felt like I was getting somewhere in this place.

I had left my on the edge of the vent, slipped them on, and jumped to the floor. But as I began to walk back towards the living quarters, my Inner Alarm made my head buzz, and I whipped around to see Dr. Franxx had slipped from an office behind me.

"You're not half as sneaky as you think you are, 016."


	3. Masquerade

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing.

* * *

As I sat in the small office with Dr. Franxx, at the very least, my Inner Alarm died down. So, whatever his intentions for me were, they weren't harmful, I figured. He was shuffling through some papers, the silence hanging heavily over the room. At least for me. I had a sneaking suspicion the doctor liked making people squirm for kicks.

"So, has your first ride with Zero Two exacerbated your condition?"

I was snapped from my thoughts at the question. "My condition?"

His eyes darted down to my forearm, which was still exposed because I was an idiot who forgot to roll his sleeves down. "The slits on your forearm. What do they do?'

"I uh…" I rubbed the back of my head, nervously.

"And has this happened before contact with her, or has it just been limited to wall-crawling?"

"Wait…you knew?" I asked, dropping all pretenses.

Dr. Franxx rolled his eyes. "I've been running tests on you since you were knee-high. You were always a special case, what with your acrobatics and sneaking around. Of course, I saw your mutations. I just didn't tell any of the others."

So only he knew, huh? "Why would you do that?"

"I've never seen anything like it, that's why!" The doctor chuckled and leaned back in the office chair he was sitting in, making it squeak rather obnoxiously. "Why would I want Papa ruining my fun? I want to see how you turn out."

I wasn't really sure how I felt about that; this guy was treating me like some sort of lab rat, but he also could report me to Papa and then…well, I don't know what would happen, but the thought made my head buzz. I felt like deep down, part of me knew what happened to those who were outside of the norm. But speaking of forgotten memories…

"Do you know why I'm like this, doc?"

The doctor sat up and looked at me. Maybe it was the fact he only had half a face, but he was incredibly hard to read. "I have suspicions, but unfortunately, that's classified."

I scowled. "Doctor, I've spent years wondering what made me this way, you can't just expect me- "

"I expect you to wait a little longer, 016." The doctor interrupted me, looking bored with me already. "I have a feeling you'll find out on your own soon enough. You're one to seek out answers, aren't you? I expect you'll keep digging until you find them, won't you?"

I heaved a sigh. "Yes."

The doctor opened a drawer at the desk and pulled out two things. First was a cloth he threw to me. "Then you should wear this so people don't recognize you. If I can catch you, anyone can."

I unfolded it to see it was a mask, a black mask with blue lines that looked like webbing, with two large white eye lenses. "Oh…okay…"

"Second, part of what made finding you out so easy is that you leave fingerprints everywhere," the doctor added dryly.

"I can't climb through my clothes," I replied, lamely. "It does suck having to take my shoes off every time I try and to do anything."

"Well, there's a way around that," Dr. Franxx then handed me a small, circular device, with four prongs sticking out on each side to make it look like a small spider. "This device can put you in your Franxx piloting suit anywhere. Because it's lasered on, it's thin enough for you to climb in without leaving prints everywhere. Just put that on your chest and hit this little switch and you'll be in your Franxx suit. Between these two things, you'll have a full disguise."

I looked at the two objects and stuffed them into my pocket. "Thanks, I guess…but why give me these?"

The doctor laughed again. "Maybe I can't give you answers, but I can't wait to find out what happens when you do. Now go. You have a briefing soon, I'm sure."

He walked out of the room, leaving me incredibly confused as I stared after the old man. Still, he wasn't wrong. I had places to be.

* * *

Now that I knew I was capable of being a Stamen, even if only a few more times, watching the Squad sync together in their Franxx was actually pretty cool. It was a sight to behold, but I also pondered on why someone would design fighting robots to look like cute girls in the first place. Then again, Dr. Franxx struck me as a weird guy, even if he did give me a cool mask.

As they unloaded and went back to the living quarters, I broke away and went into the woods to test a few things out, making my way to the small lake I had met Zero Two just yesterday at. To think, something so chance would have changed my life.

Reaching into my pocket, I placed the mask and Pilot-suit device on the ground and undressed. Once I was suited up, I slipped the mask over my face, marveling at how well made it was. It felt like nothing was there, my vision not obscured in the slightest.

"Okay now let's see if I can..." Oh neat, it changes my voice a bit too. That will help.

THWIP!

I grinned beneath the mask as a flick of my wrists sent two weblines into the forest, sticking to two separate trees. There was a specific motion to mimicking the feeling, and it certainly helped to think about Zero Two. She was connected to whatever it was that made me different, I was sure, but at the moment, I was concerned with just one thing.

"Woohoo!" I belted out, launching myself through the two trees like a slingshot, kicking off another tree, and slinging two more web lines to catapult myself through the forest.

It was a rush of exhilaration, zipping through tree limbs, my Inner Alarm letting me know when to twist or curve my body around a stray branch. I admittedly lost track of time amongst the woods, and I knew that if I kept Ichigo waiting, she'd come looking for me.

As I walked back to where I had left my clothes, I saw a squirrel scampering towards my pockets.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, absentmindedly flicking my wrists towards it aggressively. Again, my wrist responded with a THWIP, and a web shot from me again, but it spread in the air in a web-like pattern, catching the startled creature as it squeaked helplessly against the restraints.

"Ah! Sorry!" I cried, retracting my web line, and the poor thing fell from its confine, darting into the woods.

I looked down at my arms. This was an amazing ability. I knew what everyone said about Zero Two, but if riding with her gave me this power, to shoot webs from my arms, what did that say about me?

This was incredible. This was...

"Making me thirsty," I gasped as I got dressed, realizing my throat was incredibly dry. I guess those webs had to come from somewhere; I needed to refuel.

I certainly wasn't going to find any answers out here, so it was time to go rehydrate and get some food in me.

As I approached my home, I saw Ichigo playing with a cat on the porch. She had a way with animals, and I'm not sure how she did it, but it was always amusing how the whole, "hardass," facade dropped in the presence of something soft and fluffy. "You're just a cut wittle kitty, aren't you!"

As soon as she saw me walking up, she immediately bolted to an upright position and cleared her throat. "There you are, Hiro."

"I'd hope, or I'd be having an out of body experience," I replied with a smirk. "You don't have to wait for me, you know."

"I do when you ditch your squadmates right after the ceremony," she gave me a stern look. "This is your home now, you should really get acquainted with the routine here now that you're a part of this team."

I held up my hands in surrender. "Okay. You win. I'll be a good boy, I promise."

"But...speaking of being on this team...I don't think you should pilot with that girl anymore."

My hands shifted into a fold across my chest. "Oh?"

"You know what they say about her, right?" She folded her arms right back at me, but she was so tiny in comparison to me the effect was a bit silly.

"That if you say her name in a mirror three times with the lights off, she appears behind you?" Was my dry response. I'd read that urban legend in a book somewhere.

"She's a partner killer, you smartass. Three rides, you die. I don't know if you forgot your basic math, but that leaves you two more rides until you die. So, don't ride with her. She's not even part of the squad."

"And what if she's the only person I can ride with?" I asked. "If she's the only one I can Pilot with, what would be the point of me being here? Sitting on the sidelines and looking pretty?"

This took Ichigo off guard and she looked away, face flushed for whatever reason, so I pressed past her in her moment of weakness. "Look, Ichigo, I'm parched and starving, so I'm going to get something to eat."

"...f-fine, Hiro."

As I approached the door, Goro stuck his head out of the door, looking a bit...frazzled. "Oh good, it's you two. I need your help, that weird girl is in our mess hall."

I raised my eyebrows at him and followed. Things were just getting more and more interesting here, I suppose.

* * *

I knew what honey was. I'd read all about it; bees made it from nectar inside of hives.

Never had I read about someone pouring it on a slab of meat though.

"She must like sweet things."

"No PERSON has horns."

"She's nothing like the rumor said she'd be."

It was then I realized that none of my squadmates knew how to fucking whisper.

Goro said something to me as well, but my eyes were transfixed to Zero Two, licking honey off her hands. For some reason, this made parts other than my head buzz, but I shook that thought away. How did her injuries heal so quick? I would have loved to have just asked her, "hey, how did you make me shoot spider webs out of my arms," but considering everyone was around, I decided discretion was the better part of valor.

Zorome walked over to her with his chest puffed out and hand extended. "Hey there! Watching you fight was a treat, and I would be glad to show you how a real man Pilot's a -AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I looked away and held in a laugh as Zero Two wiped honey on Zorome's blazer without even looking up from her food. "YOU RUINED MY SUNDAY BEST!"

As I was holding in a laugh, I suddenly felt a presence over my shoulder. Zero Two pushed herself onto my lap with an arm around me. "Hi there. We should be eating together. It makes things sweeter."

I went to open my mouth, and a squeak noise came out. Oof. Good job, Hiro. I cleared my throat a bit. "Well, I am the sweetest thing here, so..."

Oh jeez, the squeak noise was better than that. Why do I forget all my five-star wit whenever this girl is around?!

Where do I even start? I can't ask anything too detailed in front of the others. "Hey...so...did I really pilot that Franxx with you? It all seemed kind of hazy at the time."

I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as she ran a finger along my jawline. "You sure did...and you were wonderful, darling."

I heard several spoons drop around the room and at least half of the squad repeat the word, "darling?" But when I heard it, static filled my head, and I heard it again...but in my voice? I knew this word. Or I had, at some point.

"What does that even mean?" Miku hissed, not really lowering her voice.

"YOU GOTTA FIX MY SHIRT! THIS IS MY BEST SHIRT!" Zoromo was crying, still at Zero Two's seat.

"H-hey, you were pretty great too," I stuttered as I recovered from the static-induced vision.

She held up a plate of honey-drenched biscuits to me. "Have some, darling!"

As I surveyed the plate of tooth-rotting sweetness, the door opened to reveal Nana, catching a few people's attention. "Hey all!"

"Nana!" Kokoro, Futoshi, and a few others cried.

"I've been assigned as your official caretaker for Plantation 13! I look forward to working with you all!" Nana gave her cheesiest grin, but I smiled too. I got a bad feeling about a lot of the adults, but Nana always seemed okay.

"Is Zero Two staying here as well?" Ichigo asked. At the sound, I could see Zero Two shoot her a suspicious look, which was returned in spades by the squad leader.

"We're still waiting on orders from HQ, but in the meantime, please, make her feel welcome!" Nana replied, though her smile faltered a bit. "She won't be working with you guys."

"Can I ride in a Franxx with her again?" I asked.

Zero Two smiled at me and I felt her squirm into my lap a bit more. "T-there's something I want to be sure of," I added, heat climbing to my cheeks.

"That's not for you to decide," Nana said, a bite in her tone. "We'll see what Papa has to say. Zero Two, come on, this is not where you are supposed to eat."

"Spoilsport," Zero Two said, following Nana out the door.

"I don't get that girl," Miku grumbled.

* * *

"A wuss like you?! Come on!" Zorome grunted as he went to get suited up. I just rolled my eyes after him. One minute, Goro was happy I was staying and nudging me in the ribs, the second Zorome is throwing a fit.

It certainly didn't make me feel better watching them get in their Franxx and goof around as I watched from a training module.

I remembered riding with her...barely. Frustrated I pulled over, left the training unit at a station for them, and looked around for any Adults. With the coast clear, I went back out to the outside training course and pulled my mask on from my back pocket. I jumped over railing of the plantation, turned in midair, and shot a web line over to the upper plantation deck.

Perching up on the deck, I watched my squad line up in formation as they began running some drills. I took a little bit of joy in watching Miku and Zorome almost fall over in Argenta, only to be caught by Delphinium.

Dr. Franxx said I could find answers on my own. Maybe I'd go and check Strelizia...

* * *

Which was a good idea in theory, but in practice, the air ventilation system in that part of the plantation is crazy complicated. By the time I got to the bay in an air vent, I could hear what sounded like an argument between Zero Two and Ichigo. I found a few slits in the ventilation and peered down at the two of them, Goro watching their dispute awkwardly.

"So, stay away from Hiro!"

Oh, this was going great.

"Hiro?" Zero Two asked. "You mean my darling? And why should I do that?"

Oh man. I never told her my name, did I? Ugh.

"Because you're not part of this squad. One day you'll leave, and I don't want you to get Hiro's hopes up!"

"And what are you to my darling?" Zero Two was uncomfortable close to Ichigo now, and even Goro looked a bit worried.

"The leader of this squad!"

I watched in amusement as, without warning, Zero Two leaned in and licked Ichigo, like she had done to me just yesterday. Ichigo yelped and jumped back. "You taste sweet. I like that."

I stifled a laugh. I didn't really know what the licking people thing was about, but Ichigo's reaction had been priceless.

* * *

Unfortunately, that meant my spying had turned up a fat load of _nothing._

I was admittedly a bit disgruntled as I walked back towards the rear of our home. Made worse as my head began to buzz, and I snapped my eyes open to see Zorome kick a ball towards me full force.

With a loud smack, I help up my hand and caught the ball, one handed, shooting Zorome a death glare in return; I wasn't exactly in the mood for him.

"Lucky catch," Zorome grunted. "Still feeling sharp from playing with yourself in that training unit? That's the closest you'll get to action."

"Still rocking the food stain on your shirt?" I replied, dryly, getting a laugh from Futoshi. "I piloted yesterday. You saw it. Zero Two confirmed it."

"She can pilot it alone! You were just in there as cargo you big crybaby!" Zoromoe shouted back, getting in my face.

Man. I would love to just thwip a web into that guy's face. "Nah. You're wrong. Like usual."

Zorome angrily threw a fist at me, and I reached out my hand to catch it. "Come on man, now you're just being stupid." I knew the bored tone would just make him angrier.

"Break it up you guys!"

I looked up to see Goro running over to pull us apart. I threw my hands into the air and stepped back. "Sorry Goro."

Zorome retreated back to Mitsuru, and the two skulked off. Goro frowned at me. "You know better than to him get under your skin."

"He's like a spider," I muttered. "They always get in."


	4. Trial and Error

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

"Of course I'll partner with you." Zero Two gave me a coy smile. "You are my darling."

My heart jumped to my throat. If this went well, I could be a parasite.

What could possibly go wrong?!

"Nana, I'd like to pilot with Hiro in the mock battle!"

Nana looked from both girls, thinking about it heavily. After a moment, she nodded. "Ichigo is right. Hiro will partner with her."

Well damn it.

Ichigo's declaration took me completely by surprise, and my Inner Alarm was already buzzing, telling me that something about this was going to be a bad idea.

Zorome volunteered himself and Miku to take on me and Ichigo, apparently still fuming about our argument from earlier.

"Can...can I do this with Zero Two?" I asked. "I mean, do I get a say in this?"

"She's not cleared to participate in this squad's activities. I think you pairing with Ichigo would be more in line," Nana replied. "It needs to be with someone in your squad."

Well, this sucks. I looked over at Zero Two. She had a rather neutral expression on her face, like she was excited for how this was going to turn out. "Well that sucks. I guess my injuries aren't fully healed." She walked over to Ichigo and bent down to be eye level with our leader. "You can have him just this once. You better take good care of him."

Ichigo attempted her best glare, but it was like a kitten going up against a mountain lion. Well, she tried at least.

I did have to admit, Zero Two's whole attitude of...what was the right word? Aloofness, perhaps, was sometimes a bit off-putting. I never knew what was going on in her head, but as much as it seemed like something that would usually be setting my head buzzing, it drew me in. One day, I'd figure out why.

But right now, I had to try and blunder my way through this mock battle.

Even as I suited up, the normal way, as it were, my feelings of unease never died down, though at least the buzzing in my head stopped. Couldn't I just have a fist fight with Zorome? Maybe a footrace against them? I think Ichigo and I could take them even without my powers.

As the Stamen suit materialized up my body, I drew in a deep breath. I read somewhere that doing this and clearing your mind was supposed to help you find inner peace. I usually got stuck at the mind-clearing part, though.

As Ichigo assumed her position and handles flew up to me from her sides, I gave it one more shot. After all, how bad could it be?

* * *

"You were awful," Ichigo spat, and it wasn't hard to tell she was crying.

Okay, so, it turns out that this could be really fucking bad. We got a draw on a technicality, because Zorome and Miku were also completely out of sync.

Worse was what happened before that…

* * *

"Well, when I flew with Zero Two, she did this weird thing where we put our lips together…she called it a kiss," I felt awkward even explaining this, even though I wasn't entirely sure why. "Then everything just kind of flowed naturally."

"Then…let me try."

Ichigo sounded almost desperate as she covered my eyes and pressed her lips against mine.

For a second, I was expecting the same thing to happen as it did when Zero Two kissed me. You know, exploding lights, heart jumping out of my chest, maybe I'd gain some weird new spider ability.

But, the fact that I felt none of those things is what got me the most. Not even a buzz from my Inner Alarm.

She pulled away, and looked at me, a pleading in her eyes.

"I uh…I got nothing," I admitted, quietly. I didn't have a quip for this one.

* * *

After how that failure of a battle went, I was given a full medical screening to see if there was something wrong with me that could explain the lack of synchronization.

There was never anything in these scans. I just am not made to pilot. Unless it's with Zero Two, apparently.

As I left the medical room, I frowned as Ichigo was waiting for me.

Truth be told, I didn't even want to look at anyone, let alone talk to them. I was at maximum brooding tonight. Maybe I'd change my name to Max Brooding. No, that sounds terrible. She, however, was the last person I wanted to see, as our kiss had left me feeling nothing but awkward.

"Are you doing okay?"

Considering she was avoiding eye contact with me, it was plain to see she wasn't exactly enjoying this meeting either.

"Right as rain," I replied, plastering a fake smile on my face.

"Oh. Well...that's good," she said, pushing past me.

I let my shoulders drop and sighed in frustration as the door shut behind her. Just when I thought things were looking up. A far cry from the me giving her the name Ichigo as a Nestling.

I made my way back to our shared home, and as I walked over a bridged pond, Goro came out to meet me.

"There you are," he gave me a big grin, as he usually did. "What happened back there?"

"Debuting my new, 'playing possum,' strategy. I guess it needs work," I told him lamely. "I really blew it."

Goro gave me a sympathetic smile. "That's rough, Hiro. Did anything weird happen in the cockpit? Ichigo seemed upset."

"No, not really." Well, we put our lips together and now I don't feel like I can look at her the same, and that's kind of weird, but you know, other than that. "Next time you see her, can you tell her that it wasn't her fault?"

"Well...sure, but why can't you tell her?"

"I don't think she wants to talk to me right now," I admitted, rubbing the back of my head.

Goro gave a small chuckle. Glad he at least found some humor in this. "Of course. So, what are you going to do now?"

"You know, the usual," I looked away, knowing a scolding was coming, "light reading. Moping. ProbablytryandPilotwithZeroTwoagaingottagobye."

Goro grabbed my shoulder as I tried to slip by him. One day, that would work. One day. "Hiro, are you sure about that? You know what they say about her, right?"

"That she puts honey on like, everything?" I asked, sarcastically. "I was there for that."

"I'm serious!" Goro looked a bit fed up with my shit, so I kept quiet. "No one's ever survived more than three rides with her, Hiro."

"Well. if I can't Pilot with anyone else, I guess I'm going to have to see for myself," I replied with a shrug. "If it's in my power to Pilot only like that, then I have a responsibility to do so."

"I don't get you, Hiro."

"I..." I paused for dramatic effect. "Am complicated."

* * *

I excused myself to go train in a training unit, but that wasn't quite the truth. Really, I was going out to the lake to experiment with my webs some more.

There were two times in my life I ever felt like I was flying. The best time was piloting with Zero Two.

The second, was this, as I attached two weblines to a pair of trees, and slingshot myself over the entire lake. As I hit a three-point landing on the opposing shore, I caught my breath.

It was starting to get dark, so I figured I probably should train, if I ever did get a chance to Pilot again.

But as I entered the training facility, I was surprised to see Zero Two slumped against the wall, looking like she was asleep. Quietly, I approached, my eyes locked onto her horns. The glinted against the fluorescent lighting. I wanted to touch them, but that would be weird, right? Probably.

"Darling, you pervert."

OH GOD CAN SHE READ MINDS?!

I jumped back as her voice came from her motionless body, but she looked up at me with a small smirk. "Quit staring at me."

I gulped and looked to the side. Why did this girl make me so nervous? Feelings like this were so foreign to me, and all my wit disappeared. "Totally not staring. And how does that make me a pervert. Also, you know, n-not staring."

She giggled. "It's fine. The doctor said it's better for Parasites to be a bit pervy."

"Pertinent information for my everyday life," I quipped, getting a smile from her. "What are you doing here?"

"I was told you do a lot of training here, so I was waiting for you to show up. It's rude to keep me waiting, darling." She dropped her voice to a low, sultry tone, and for some reason my heartrate picked up again. "Come on, I want to show you something."

I tilted my head, curiously, as she stood up and began walking away before I even had a chance to answer. "Lead the way."

Zero Two seemed to know this place like the back of her hand, taking me down some winding hallways, until she passed through a gate I had never seen before, but I was pretty sure only the Adults had clearance for. She walked through no problem, but I smacked into it, the holographic door glowing red. I automatically began scanning the walls for a vent I could sneak through, but...

"What's the matter, darling?"

"Oh, Children aren't allowed through here." I gave a gentle knock on the door, causing it to glow red. "Not many people know this, but my greatest foes are doors."

She laughed and sauntered over to me. No one ever saunters, but she definitely did, and my heart fluttered as she grabbed one of my hands and wrapped her other arm around my waist. "These are easy to trick, darling! Just...like...this!"

She led us into some sort of dance where we both passed through the gate at once, the green glow of the holographic door confirming our clearance. I let out a laugh. "Amazing. I didn't know you had an S-Class ID."

What else don't I know about her? She turned and beamed at me once more. "See? No problem."

Zero Two lead me to an open a door at the end of the hall, and I almost had to pause as my eyes adjusted to the light of the city in Plantation 13. I'd never been this close to it before, and I made no effort to hide the gasp in my voice. "Whoa...how did you know about this place?"

"All the plantations are built pretty much the same. This is nothing special." There was a bitterness of dissatisfaction in her voice that couldn't be any further than my own.

I looked out at the orange and yellow glow of the city. My forearms began to itch again; I could have a lot of fun using my webs with all these buildings around. "Maybe. I've never been allowed here though. So, to me, it looks incredible. Especially compared to the bird cage and the other facilities."

I looked over to her, admiring the contrast of her vibrant pink hair and red coat against the endless glow of yellow light. She must have noticed, because she turned her head slightly and huffed, "What are you staring for?"

"Just trying to figure you out," I mused. "Hey, did you want me to give you a name? I named all of the squad."

She smirked and looked back out to the city. "I'm fine with Zero Two. And… there's not much to figure out, darling. I'm your partner."

Yeah, no. You're a mystery-wrapped enigma. "If you say so."

Without warning, she hopped the railing and began balancing along an outstretched pillar. "I don't really see the point of names. At some point, we'll all die and be a statistic. There's no sky and ocean in this isolated city. It's all a waste."

"Let's not die right now," I answered, nervously. I was ready to shoot a web line to catch her, "come back here and we can finish this conversation."

"Hey darling?"

Ignoring my pleas, she turned to me with her hands behind her back. "Do you...want to run away with me? I can get out of here if you would like."

Suddenly, it was like a gun went off in my head, filling my senses with static and my mind reeling.

I can get you out of here? No, she wasn't supposed to say that.

I said that, didn't I? When? I had wanted to get out of here!

Wait, didn't I grow up wanting to Pilot? That was our whole purpose.

But hearing Zero Two say this, I remembered something. I hadn't always wanted that. I wanted to get out of here. With someone. Who? When was this?!

When I returned to my senses, I was on all fours on the viewing platform. Zero Two was standing next to me, bent down to get a good look at me, a mixture of surprise and mild concern on her place. "Darling, are you alright?"

I stood up and brushed myself off. "Y-yeah. Just uh...got a migraine when you said that, for some reason."

The answer seemed to make her sad. "Ah...I was just kidding."

But I don't think she was.

* * *

The encounter stuck in my mind as I sat in the briefing with the rest of my squad. It was a welcome distraction, they were giving me the side eyes after the mock battle.

They were heading into battle with a Conrad class Klaxosaur. All well and good, I guessed. I couldn't help but feel left out as they all left to get synced in to their Franxx.

But it wasn't long after when Ikuno and Mitsuru came back, both looking rather down.

"Is it possible there's a compatibility issue?" Mitsuru sneered. Huh, usually the level of contempt in his voice was reserved for me. He must have been pretty mad at Ikuno. He looked even more disgruntled after Nana advised it wasn't grounds to split them up.

I tried to put this out of my mind and watch the mission, but that was going haphazardly too as a the Klaxosaur knocked out Miku, leaving the rest of my squad trying desperately to destroy its newly-exposed core.

"Should have sent me from the start," Zero Two leaned back. "Now they're all going to die."

That's a really weird sentence to have an, "I told you so," attitude about, but I turned to Nana and asked, "Let me and Zero Two go help! They need us!"

"Not a chance!" Hachi growled from the screen.

"No time to be a stickler!" Zero Two growled. "Let me and my darling ride NOW!"

"Send me." Mitsuru sneered. "I'm the only official Parasite here."

"I want to ride with my DARLING!"

Nana glanced around the room, considering her options. "Can you ride with Mitsuru?"

"What part of DARLING don't you understand?"

"If that weakling can do it, I can." Mitsuru sneered.

Guilt surged through me as I remembered the bite in Ichigo's words from earlier.

I was awful.

For a second the rest of the arguing was drowned out in my mind, and it drifted back to Naomi, and what she had said. "Why did I have to get partnered with you?"

I let out a sigh and looked up. "Zero Two...go with him."

Ouch. The look in her eyes when I said this was almost as bad as Ichigo's had been. "You want me...to go with him?"

I nodded, but when I tried to speak, the words got caught in my throat. So, I just nodded again.

She looked to the side. "Well...if you say so, darling."

Mitsuru sneered at me and walked off to prepare.

But as they left together, my Inner Alarm began to buzz. Why? I looked around the room for danger. What was wrong?

* * *

It wasn't until after the battle, in the hangar with the rest of my squad that I realized why my Inner Alarm had gone off. As Zero Two stepped out of Strelizia, I saw something I wasn't prepared for as she moved to the side.

Still in the Stamen pilot seat, Mitsuru hadn't moved. He sat there in a bloody, broken heap, gasping for air.

Now I knew why my Inner Alarm had kicked in as soon as I sent him off with Zero Two; I had basically ordered him to the butcher.

"Darling..."

My eyes snapped over to Zero Two, as she gave me a small smile. "I don't think I like this one. I'll be riding with you from now on."

My eyes darted from her, to Mitsuru, and then back again.

What have I gotten myself into?


	5. Devour Me

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

I looked into the medical wing as Mitsuru tossed and turned, mumbling about demons and death. As the days went by, I found I was getting more questions than answers, the biggest being why did I have almost no adverse side effects to riding with Zero Two, and the second being why did Mitsuru look like he picked a fist fight with a Gutenburg-class Klaxosaur?

Was Zero Two as dangerous as people said? I didn't think so, she never set off my Inner Alarm. Except when she was going to Pilot with Mitsuru. Did she just bypass it for me, somehow? How would that even work?

I wasn't sure, but looking at Mitsuru like this, it was the first time I could see why people were afraid of her.

But even still? I wanted to ride with Zero Two again. For whatever reason, I could handle it. Maybe my own mutation had something to do with it.

I took a deep breath. Maybe I could get some answers now. "Mitsuru?"

He looked up at me, head clenched in his hands. He didn't say anything so I pressed on. "What happened? With Zero Two?

"What happened?! She tried to DEVOUR ME! My flesh! My blood! My very soul! She...she wanted to kill me! And she smiled the whole time."

Huh. Well, okay, his experience was completely different from mine. Which I suspected. My thoughts were dashed by the buzzing in my head as he lunged for me, but collapsed into my arms instead. Futoshi ran over and helped me load him back into his bed. But Mitsuru kept going. "No one is safe, Hiro. You're crazy if you think you're the exception."

Oof.

"Hey, you okay?" Ichigo whispered, next to me.

"Yeah." I lied. The two of us began walking away from the medical ward.

After a few more minutes she spoke up again. "You still wanted to ride with her again, don't you?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "If it's the only way, then I have to see it through."

Ichigo looked at me like I had stabbed her in the back. "...fine, Hiro."

She stormed away from me. Man. I'm just Mr. Popular around here.

I went back up to my room and pulled out the mask Dr. Franxx had given me from my drawer. I wasn't going to find any answers soon, here, so I pulled my spider mask over my head and climbed out the window, and down the side of the house.

Time for a little reconnaissance work around the Plantation.

* * *

Pushing open an air vent, I made my way through the office area of the plant where Nana and Hachi usually were preparing for missions. Maybe they'd have some records on her.

Luck was on my side for once; Hachi wasn't in his office, so I pushed open the grating of his vent, and lowered myself down to the floor on a webline. "What kind of idiot doesn't lock up his computer?" I muttered to myself, seeing that he still had his messages from HQ Open.

I had always found their computers and messaging systems interesting, and I admit this is not the first time I had spied on or broken into an office if only to experiment around with the systems, so I was somewhat acquainted with how they worked.

I opened the latest message and scanned it. It looked like coordinates for where Papa wanted us to go next, but towards the bottom I saw something that made my heart sink.

"We are recalling Pistil Code 002 and Franxx: Strelitzia to the front lines. Transport within 24 hours."

I stepped back and sighed. "Damn it."

Feelings I'd buried were beginning to surface. Anger, and a lot of it. After I had found that empty window in the Garden all that time ago, I was so mad. With Papa, with the Adults, and with myself.

I had lost count of how many times I scaled those walls, only to be dragged back by Adults later that day. Eventually, I gave up. I knew it was no use.

Zero Two...I didn't know anything about her. And I'm sure she doesn't know much about me, other than liking that I have these weird feelings.

But I wasn't going to let them take her. Not before we rode again.

My Inner Alarm began to buzz and I could hear the doorknob begin to turn. I ran under the opened vent grate, sprang into it from below, and carefully slid the grate into place as the door creaked open.

"That girl will be the death of me." Hachi grunted as he walked into his office. "And I left my messages open. Ugh."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Dr. Franxx was right. I need to be more careful if I'm going for stealth.

* * *

With all that was on my mind, I wanted nothing more than to soak in the bath, and for once, luck was on my side as they were empty for once. If I did my best thinking in an air vent, I did my best strategizing in the bath. One day, I will combine the two.

I needed to ride with Zero Two one more time. To know that I could. But how did I make a ride with Zero Two happen?

As if summoned by my thoughts, I leaned my head back and looked up to see her standing over me. "WHOA HOLY NAKED I'M CRAP."

Ugh.

I spun around just in time for her to march into the tub, fully clothed, and push me against the opposing wall.

"Y-you're really close," I stuttered. An astute observation, obviously.

"Darling...let's run away together."

Her tone was aloof and disassociated; she'd long since wanted to leave. "What?" I asked, dumbfounded.

My mind got cloudy. I had wanted to leave. I knew that all too well. But it just didn't register as possible. "Let's leave all this fighting behind."

She moved her head closer to me and I involuntarily gulped as I scanned her up and down, in anticipation of another kiss.

But...I think she took it a different way, because she noticed and gave pause. "Or...are you like everyone else? Tell me darling...do you think I'm a monster?"

This time, there was no hiding it, no matter how she tried. Even saying it hurt her. It didn't matter what I thought, I think she believes herself to be one. "Zero Two...I..."

Remember when I said luck was on my side? I was clearly wrong as an alarm began blaring throughout the house. The two of us looked up and began making our way for the briefing room.

"Get geared up to ride, darling!" I heard Zero Two say from in front of me, sounding more excited than anything at whatever this potential danger was

* * *

As we entered the briefing room, I could see why there was an alarm; a massive Klaxosaur was uncomfortably close to the Plantation, which was something that I kind of feel was happening more and more often recently. My squadmates were already out fighting the snake-like beast.

Nana looked over her shoulder at us with annoyance. "Don't think that just because you're dressed for a fight that I'm going to deploy you."

Zero Two rolled her eyes. "You said it, not us. You were clearly thinking it."

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance. This place was just determined to keep me down.

As we watched the fight another massive serpent like Klaxosaur erupted from the ground and attacked Squad 13, knocking my annoyance right back to concern. "We can't just sit here and do nothing, can we?" I asked Nana, frustrated. "They'll get killed without us."

"You don't have clearance, Hiro."

"By the way," Zero Two narrowed her eyes suspiciously...

My head began to buzz, and I looked around, worried.

"...who was that transport for?"

Nana said nothing but Zero Two's question was instead answered by a bunch of APE soldiers with guns bursting into the room.

"It's time for you to return to the front lines, Zero Two." Nana said, without turning to even look at her. Probably for the best so she didn't see the glare I was giving her.

A soldier approached and grabbed Zero Two by the shoulder in the way one might grab a bag off the floor. "Let's go."

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

I jumped slightly; I hadn't heard her raise her voice before, and it was a big shift; there was a lot of rage beneath that surface. As she whipped around and smacked the footsoldier, he was flung across the room like he had been shot from a cannon.

My eyes widened. Did she...did she have enhanced strength like me? How?

These weren't answers I could get right now as a four laser-sights were pointed at Zero Two, guns cocked threateningly. Despite her anger, the look on her face fell, and she looked to be defeated. "I guess our time is up, darling."

There was a new feeling in my heart at those words. One I think that maybe I had felt just once before. Like a pit was opened, swallowing all the things I had felt the last few days into it, never to be seen again. No, I didn't care for this one.

She walked up to me, a half smile on her face, before she conceded. "I really thought this could have worked out."

I flinched as she lightly tapped her horns to my forehead. "I was really hoping we could be together. But...I guess that this is goodbye, darling." With that, she left with the remaining soldiers.

Watching her go, I could remember another vague feeling, one that I only ever had when I tried to recall the gaps in my memory.

I wanted to cry. Touching my cheek, I realized I _was_ crying.

It was followed by a splitting headache, like someone had punched me in the side of the head.

This has happened before, hasn't it? I opened my eyes, the briefing room spinning and blurred, my head feeling like it was going through a microwave. But I knew it! It had to! Someone...someone important was taken from me by this place.

As the headache faded and the room stopped spinning, all my feelings were replaced with determination.

I was the only person here who wasn't afraid of her horns.

No. Not again. Not anymore.

I took off running through the hallways, ignoring the protested cries of Nana. My feet flew faster than they ever had before, seemingly knowing the way without my input. Perhaps this was a link I had to Zero Two, or even a facet of my Inner Alarms precognitive abilities.

My quest was halted by my greatest foe: The S-Class ID Door. I pounded against it in frustration and screamed, "ZERO TWO," and I could see Zero Two and her flanking of soldiers pause to look at me. Despite her forlorn gaze, they all kept going.

No. I had to tell her.

To her face.

I pulled my mask from my back pocket, pulled it over my face, and used my webs to yank a vent grate out of the wall. I flew through the vent, cutting them off through the twists and turns until I was right above them. As they passed below me, I removed a vent grate, and shot a web line down onto the back of the rear of soldier. He barely had time to yelp as I yanked him up into the vent and webbed him against the ceiling, covering his mouth with a glob of web fluid.

Zero Two and the soldiers whipped around at the sound.

"WHERE DID HE GO?!"

One of the soldiers shone a light up into the vent, gasping as he saw his captured comrade struggle against the ceiling.

Of course, as they did that, they didn't see that I had already slipped further down the vent and now did the same thing to the soldier who had been at the front of the squadron.

The two remaining soldiers and Zero Two whipped around again, though she looked far more amused about the situation than the guards did. One of them took a light and looked up at the new hole. "Signal for help."

By now, I had retreated back to the first hole I opened, and dropped down to the floor silently. As the rear guard took out his walkie talkie, I kicked him in the back of the knee, sending him down to his knees, and followed up with a big haymaker to his temple to knock him out. For good measure, I shot a web net over him to keep him pinned down, just like I had done to that squirrel in the forest.

Zero Two and remaining soldier were both facing me now, the soldiers gun pointed right at my head. "Don't move!" He growled, but the shaking in his voice and inability to keep his gun trained on me betrayed his feelings.

I slowly raised my hands to surrender, but halfway up, I flicked my wrist towards him, ensnaring his gun in a web and yanking it from his hands. As he stumbled forward, I grabbed the weapon in both hands and snapped it in half.

"Didn't Papa ever tell you not to play with guns? No? Just the Children?" I taunted.

The guard lunged for me, but I responded by connecting a web line to both his shoulders, pulling him towards me, and performing a leaping knee thrust right between his eyes. The guard collapsed in a heap.

Taking a deep breath, I turned to Zero Two but she stepped back. Ah right. She doesn't know who I am.

Oh. Wait. Shit. I hadn't thought this through. Looking around, I noticed a few cameras, so I webbed them with a few flicks of my wrist, and shakily removed my mask.

For the first time, it looks like I was the one to take her by surprise, as her eyes widened slightly. "Darling?"

I swallowed. Now or never. "You were wrong Zero Two."

She tilted her head, confused.

"I'm like you. Not everyone else. And you know what?" I let out a snort of rueful laughter. "I don't care. I don't care that you have horns or that I shoot webs. And maybe I was afraid at first but...when I'm with you, when I rode Strelizia with you? It didn't matter. I'd never felt more free. That's why I couldn't...I couldn't just let you go!"

There were the waterworks again.

"I don't care about riding a Franxx. I care about riding with you."

Zero Two slowly smiled before it spread into a wide grin across her face. "Wow, darling...I don't think anyone's ever said something so embarrassing to me before. And coupled with showing me your neat little powers? So forward, darling."

My face turned crimson and I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. "W-well, it's from the heart, so..."

She snickered, and leaned forward with her hands behind her back. "Well...do you want to ride now?"

My embarrassment dropped and I nodded, a big, stupid grin across my face. But she turned her face away and cupped her ear. "Nuh uh. I want to hear."

"I want to ride Strelizia with you!" I exclaimed.

"Louder!"

I laughed, as even she was grinning at her goofy request. So I shouted, cupping my hands to my mouth. "I WANT TO RIDE IN STRELIZIA WITH YOU, ZERO TWO!"

She beamed at me and I felt my insides melt. But before I knew it, she had taken my hands in that weird dancing position. "That's just want I expect from my darling!"

Without warning, she began pulling me through the doors of the plantation to where Strelizia was docked...surrounded by guards. I tensed slightly, wondering if I'd need to fight some more, but Zero Two just jumped into a massive drop kick into the nearest one, knocking him into a group of others, and kept dragging me towards Strelizia. "Hurry!"

As I sat down in the Stamen seat I drew in a deep breath, catching Zero Two's attention. "You okay, darling?"

"Just...nervous if I can do this," I admitted.

She smiled at me. "You can and you will. And you'll be amazing, just like last time."

She took her position and the handles sprang from her sides.

Determination steeled, I took hold.

And took flight.

As our minds linked, it was so clear this time. Our minds became one and Strelizia sprang to life, my touch commanding her forward to tear the door off her transport.

"This is...THIS IS AMAZING!" I hollered. I could barely remembering being this excited in my life. Zero Two laughed at my enthusiasm, her voice echoing through Strelizia. "It's like...it's like I'm deep inside you! I can't tell where I end and you begin!"

It'd be awhile before Zero Two explained to me why this speech was funny. But she seemed ecstatic as well. "I feel it too! You and I are a perfect match. Now, come on! We've got work to do!"

We slammed into the side of one of the snake-like Klaxosaurs Argenta was wrestling with, piercing it with our spear. "DID SOMEBODY ORDER AN EPIC RESCUE?!" I yelled, adrenaline taking full hold of me.

It was a hard fight, but as time waged on, we found it was just one long Klaxosaur instead of two. The team positioned itself in the mouth of the beast, leaving myself and Zero Two to run the entire thing through, end to end, with our spear. As the Klaxosaur exploded into a shower of blue blood, I exhaled, blood pumping in my ears.

Between beating some guards and riding with Zero Two, I finally felt some measure of control with my life.

I was taken aback as the squad met with us on the ground, Goro clapping me on the back. "Talk about a close call! That was awesome, Hiro!"

I laughed along with the rest as they gushed about the fight. This was new. In all my time here, I never really felt like part of the squad, but now? We had all done this together.

All of us and...

I turned around to look for Zero Two, but she was gone? Had she already gone to change?

Weird...still, I turned back to my squad as we made our way back to the locker rooms.

That high took my all the way to the locker room, and lasted right up until my suit was removed, and I saw it.

There, right over my heart, was a pulsating blue mound, connecting to all my veins and spreading up my neck and across my chest. I quickly threw on my under shirt before any of the guys could see, but I felt some tension well up in my gut.

Through my shirt, I touched the mass on my chest, a sting stretching across my pectoral.

What was happening to me?


	6. Falling Apart

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

We were summoned to watch the, "kissing," of plantation thirteen and twenty six and I wondered which connotation came first; the sort of kiss Zero Two gave me or the two plantations mashing up together to exchange magma. I figured it was the former, since early humans probably mashed faces together to swap spit long before magma extraction was ever a thing. Human evolution was funny that way.

Zorome was getting schooled on what kissing - the magma transfer, not the spit transfer - detailed by Kokoro and Ikuno and he heaved a sigh of relief. "So we can relax now, right?"

Goro shook his head. "This is a big transfer. It could easily drum up attention from more Klaxosaurs."

I could see a few looks of concerns going across the faces of the squad, so I chimed in, "No need to worry. If we all work together, now that Strelizia is on our team, we can defend the base from damn near anything."

This took most of them by surprise, though Futoshi and Kokoro both smiled brightly to me. Goro didn't look as convinced.

"Yeah, Hiro's right," Ichigo said, though her voice was downcast. "Now that Strelizia is part of the team...come on. We have to get ready for the ceremony."

Ah yes, the ceremony. Marking the occasion of two Plantations kissing. I never really understood these, but Zorome was stoked, and the rest of my squad was excited too. Especially if compared to the Squad from Plantation twenty-six.

But for some reason, whenever I saw Papa go up to speak, my Inner Alarm began to ring in my head, moreso than ever. This was the first time I had ever seen him in person. I looked around for any imminent threat, but...there was nothing.

Papa was our leader, right? So why did I get the same feeling only reserved for impending doom? Maybe this is just nerves. It didn't make sense.

Still, even as I tried to explain away the dread, I couldn't bring myself to look at him, instead noting the differences in the uniformity of Squad Twenty-Six and the haphazard standing pattern of my friends.

Either way... I was ready to get out of here.

* * *

It turns out that a giant blob on my chest was not the only thing I had to worry about, as Nana called us in to the briefing room after we returned from the ceremony. I was expecting her to review the fight and offer pointers for the next time, as she usually did after missions, but I almost felt my heart leap out of my chest when I saw a grainy picture of myself in my spider mask punching out a guard.

"Zero Two, the assailant moves out of the frame after this. What happened?" Nana demanded.

My breath caught in my chest. This was it. I had my mask for a day and I already fucked up.

To my surprise though, Zero Two just shrugged. "Whoever that was beat up my guards, so I decided to go back and find my darling for a ride." She turned to me and smiled, coyly, with her hands behind her back. "Isn't that right, darling?"

I paused. She wasn't going to tell. I smiled to her and turned to Nana. "Th-that's right. I never saw anyone in a mask."

Nana looked incredibly displeased and not entirely convinced, but she turned to the rest of Squad 13. "Did any of you see someone matching that picture?"

Murmurs rose up around the room as everyone shook their heads and Nana rubbed her temples in frustration. "If you see any suspicious Intruders, please notify me immediately. This is a security breach of the highest nature"

And despite the welt on my chest, or whatever it was, I spent the rest of the evening feeling like the luckiest person in Plantation 13.

Afterwards, Nana pulled Ichigo aside for a word in private. When she returned to our housing quarters afterwards she looked none too happy about it.

After the ceremony, my Squadmates gathered in the living room, and for once, Goro invited me along. I figured since I had actually piloted alongside them, finally, that I could join in.

I smiled along and politely nodded as they gushed about the ceremony, Zorome, Miku, Futoshi, and Kokoro all seeming pretty excited in the trust that Papa and the other Adults were putting in us.

"We have full faith in you, he said!" Zorome crowed. "That's what he said! Us! Full Faith! All of it."

"We must have really impressed him." I replied, humoring him. It was nice to see him this excited.

"I know I sure did!" He boasted. "After all, I'm the ace pilot, so try and keep up!"

I couldn't help but smile. I've known Zorome forever. I knew that beneath all the gusto he had insecurities like the rest of us. And at the end of the day, he had everyone's back. I stood up and held up a hand. "I'll do my best not to be a burden. So let's work together, eh?"

This was clearly not the response he was expecting, especially considering our scrap from a few days ago. Still, he gave a cheesy, overconfident grin and returned the handshake. "Well if you're going to be sappy about it, of course."

That was the sort of feel-good thing I needed before bed, considering I still had a pulsating blue mass on my chest making me feel like my brain was on fire.

* * *

I woke up with a pain searing through my skin and almost yelled out in agony.

Nope. Can't do that. I had already thought long and hard about this before bed. If my squadmates knew what was happening, they wouldn't let me pilot with Zero Two again. And if they didn't let me pilot with Zero Two again, my big giant speech spilling my guts to her would mean nothing. Maybe it was against my better judgment, but I trusted her.

This meant keeping quiet about the pain.

After all...she kept quiet yesterday.

"Good morning, Hiro!" Goro called to me, putting his hand on my shoulder, but he jumped away at the touch. I knew why; I was feverish, even to the touch.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed. Show time. "Good morning guys!"

Getting dressed, I had to adjust my collar rather particularly so that my bulging neck veins weren't exposed.

I was hoping no one would notice, but, of course with my luck, Ichigo immediately reached for my collar on the stairs, making me jump and yelp.

"Sorry," Ichigo immediately retracted her hand, looking flustered all the while. "Your shirt was a little messed up."

"It...Its fine," I smiled, "that's why you're the leader, right?"

"That's right!" Her confident, bossy nature taking grip on her again. "You're part of this squad now, so I won't cut you any slack for being sloppy."

I rolled my eyes, grinning back. "Always such a hardass, Ichigo."

I was again taken by surprise by a pair of horns and deep green eyes waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. "Good morning, darling!"

"Oh, hey Zero Two, what are you doing - HRK!" I greeted. I don't usually HRK during my good mornings, but my partner grabbed me by the arm and pulled me towards the mess hall.

"Come sit with me, darling!" She said, eagerly leading me to my usual seat, but she took the one typically occupied by Zorome next to me.

This was different from the bleak tone I had heard before she piloted or the sultry tones she gave me to get my heart racing. There was something simple to her voice. She seemed happy. Content.

"Hey, that's my seat!" Zorome whined from the entrance. Guess not _everyone_ was content with the turn of events, but it made me feel really glad to see this side of Zero Two.

Kokoro offered one of the boys to sit with the girls, which Futoshi took her up on. As Zorome begrudgingly took the open seat, I felt Zero Two tap my thigh. I turned to look at her, and felt my face turn crimson as she held up a biscuit, drenched in honey, towards me. "Say ah, darling."

Some light static hit my head. This was familiar too. And the more it happened, I decided it was good that Zero Two was making me attuned to my past. Maybe one day I'd remember why I was so different. I opened my mouth wide, still embarrassed at the dumbfounded look Goro was giving is across the table, and added an unnecessary, "ah," sound effect.

Biting into the honey-soaked bread I could see why Zero Two liked this so much.

It was a rather amusing breakfast; Futoshi and Kokoro mimicked our feeding, and as soon as we were done, Zero Two grabbed my hand asked if I would show her around.

"Maybe when we get back," Ichigo snapped, "we have morning training to do."

"Tch. So bossy." Zero Two smirked. In front of everyone, she tapped her horns to my forehead again, making me wince. "Hurry back, darling."

I could feel every eye in the room on me but I grinned back. "W-We'll be back before you know it."

* * *

Morning training nearly killed me today, as I pushed back the pain in my chest. My veins burned with every step and I made sure I was the last to wash up so no one would see.

I was doing so well, but as I went upstairs to grab a fresh change of clothes, my legs shake and I collapsed to the floor.

"Ah...damn it." I breathed. The floor was comfy. I could just stay here a minute and catch my breath...panting on the ground, clutching my chest.

It felt like I was burning, so I unbuttoned my shirt and lay there, chest exposed, as the room began to spin.

I must have been down there a minute, since before I knew it, the door slid open, and I heard Goro shout out, "Hiro!"

What happened next sucked. Goro picked me up and set me on the bed, grabbing me a glass of water as I slowly came around. After I was strong enough to talk, he began the interrogation. "When did this happen?"

I downed the water and sighed. "Would you believe it's a birthmark?" I joked, weakly.

"Hiro, it's from riding with Zero Two, isn't it?" Goro took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"...it doesn't matter how I answer. You already know."

Goro folded his hands over his mouth. "You can't ride with her again, Hiro." His eyes traveled to my chest. "You could die..."

"Maybe I won't." I replied, lamely. "It's my call, Goro."

"Hiro-"

"Look," I stood up. "This is the only opportunity life is giving me. I can't Pilot otherwise. And riding with her is the best feeling I've ever had. I can't stop now."

Goro looked crestfallen, and stared at his feet for awhile. "I can't stop you, can I?"

I frowned. "You're my best friend here. And no. No one can. Please...don't say anything to the others."

He said nothing until I was almost out the door. "Hiro...Ichigo is right. You really are an idiot."

"Well...if it makes you feel better, you can put that on my tombstone." Another bad joke. I heard him snort, despite himself.

"It's the only thing to put on there..." His voice softened. "Please be careful."

* * *

After that uncomfortable exchange, Zero Two was waiting for me at the entrance door, so I gave her a tour of our library, the halls, and the grounds.

She listened intently and it felt weird to be the one in control of the conversation. "So they schedule most of our activities here. It's really only in the afternoons and evenings the others catch up with each other or read or whatever."

"And what do you usually do in those fleeting moments of freedom, darling?" Zero Two asked, though there was a teasing hint to her voice that told me she was referring to my...exploits from the day before.

"I'm something of a bookworm," I replied, casually, but did roll my sleeve back a bit. "Though I've just recently taken up a few more hobbies. It's about the only control I have. With that dome over us, I think even the weather is controlled."

"So you can make it rain? Show me!"

I arched my brows back at her. "I can't just..."

"Just do it!"

That was a bit odd. Why the sudden interest? I turned towards the window, placed my hands on the glass, and boomed, "rain," in the deepest voice I could muster.

And...nothing happened.

Obviously. I looked back to Zero Two, sheepishly. "Well, worth a shot. Sorry."

She laughed and I showed her the dorms. I was awestruck as she abruptly removed her boots and gloves and began jumping playfully on one of the beds. "What are you doing?" I asked, chuckling.

"Getting comfy!" She beamed, "I should, right? After all, I'm staying here now, too!"

"That's great," I smiled, but she was too busy springing on the bed. Whim over taking me, I removed my shoes and joined her. She peaked an eye open at me, and asked, "and what are YOU doing, darling?"

"Seems kind of silly for me to talk to you down there. Now we're eye level."

"HEY, WHAT'S A GIRL DOING IN HERE!"

I had to stop myself from clutching the wall in surprise. That'd be a real sucky way for my powers to get out in the open. I jumped off the bed to see Zorome and Goro standing in the door, both looking confused, though Zorome's was his more typical, "angry and confused," brand that we've all come to know and love. "SHE CAN'T BE HERE! IT'S AGAINST THE RULES! WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY!"

"Alright, alright, we're going, I promise!" I raised my hands in defense as Zero Two leapt down. I took her hand, without thinking, and we walked away down the hall. The whole time, her hand in mine made my heart do that racing thing again. Is this normal? I feel so different around her. It's exhilarating but I really don't get it at all.

After the tour we ended up back at the library. Seeing how empty the house now was, I realized we were late - the Squad was supposed to meet with Squad twenty-six to discuss a joint operation that would be going on in the next two days. "Shit. We better get going..."

But her hand gripped mine with urgency, and she pulled me back to face her. "Darling, how long have you been different?"

Well, I should have known this conversation was coming. "That's an interesting question. But for a few years, I've had the ability climb walls, and it comes with a few abilities similar to that of most arachnids."

"Why are you like that?" She tilted her head at me as she asked, an urgency making her eyes narrow. "What made you that way? Tell me!"

It was such an innocent sounding, but completely loaded question. What did I tell her? That I spent years angsting about NOT having an answer? That when I tried to remember, I'd get migraines? That the more time I spent with her, the more this all changed?

Definitely not the last one. She already believed herself to be a monster.

"I wish I knew," I shrugged. "One day I woke up like this. When I try to remember, my head goes fuzzy."

She looked sad at this answer. "I thought maybe you had Klaxosaur blood, like me."

I gave her a sad smile back. "That's what lets you Pilot Strelitzia alone, right? Sorry. As far as I know, I was treated and given the same amount of pokes and tests as every other Child at the Garden."

"I see..." her face snapped back to it's usual aloof smile, "I think it's about the most fascinating thing I've seen at any plantation. It makes me glad to have you as my darling."

Ah, there she goes again, making my face go red. "I'm glad you're my partner too, Zero Two. Come on, we should get going." She grabbed my hand and lead the way without needing to be told again.

As nice as that was...I wonder what answer she was looking for? Maybe she knew someone like me before. Maybe one day, I'd find out.

If I lived that long.

* * *

"Sorry we're late!" I bowed as I entered the briefing room, though Zero Two just walked right past me.

Squad twenty six looked like they had seen a ghost, which is of course ridiculous because they told us Papa ate all the ghosts in the Ghost War of 2054.

"There's a problem." The leader for Squad 26 advised.

"And that is?" Nana asked, hand on her hip, impatiently.

"We refuse to fight alongside that monster!"

My eyebrows furrowed in frustration. What was this guys problem? Zero Two looked nonplussed though. "Do I know you?"

"This mission and these instructions come directly from Papa," Hachi answered, sounding exhausted. "Why would you not Pilot with her?"

The boy from Squad 26 ignored Nana and stepped towards my partner, my head buzzing. "You fight carelessly, with no concern for your comrades. Two years ago we piloted with you, and it's because of you, I..."

He seemed rather choked up, and suddenly he was shouting. "I LOST MY PARTNER! YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR ALLIES!"

Zero Two's face turned flat. "Doesn't ring a bell. Weaklings die all the time out there."

He stepped forward so I decided to step between them. "Easy there, big guy," I kept my time fair but firm, "I'm the Stamen for Strelitzia. I promise you I will keep my eyes open for everyone out there."

The tension hung in the air until he backed off.

I wasn't really sure how to feel about the whole exchange, myself. Zero Two had a tendency to act cold when it came to fighting Klaxosaurs and I couldn't feel more differently if I tried. I wanted to keep everyone alive if I could.

But I couldn't help but wonder...if everyone says you're a monster and treats you like a monster... Do you start to believe it? Do you start becoming more monstrous?

Everyone always treats her like a walking time bomb. But...her attitude doesn't always help. Maybe it's one of those defense mechanisms Goro and I talked about. Or maybe I was just making excuses for her.

* * *

I woke up before anyone else, the smell of rain tingling my nose. I looked around and noticed Goro's pillow was a little wet. I wondered if he'd gotten up in the middle of the night.

I had tossed and turned all night before, the pain keeping me awake. I also had a strange dream, but it didn't feel like one. It was like an out-of-body experience. All I heard was an angry conversation, the sound of a loud slap, an incredible rage, but then the rain. And the fact that it had rained made me wonder if this meant something.

It wasn't time for the mission yet but I didn't feel tired anymore. It hurt too much to feel tired. I sat up and decided to take a walk. In my dream I felt like I was traveling from the greenhouse to the lake I had met Zero Two at. Perhaps it was on a whim but I figured I could walk there.

Or swing. Despite the pain, I took as much joy as I could using my web lines the zip over the puddles of the forest, sling myself from tree to tree. If I really was going to die, I was going to have fun while it lasted.

I was surprised when I actually found my partner standing there, looking out at the lake, hair still dripping from the rain.

"Everything always smells nice after it rains," her voice was quiet, like she had been thinking. "Make it rain again. Oh right, I forgot...you can't make it rain."

"Maybe. Maybe not." I gently grabbed her arm. "Were you...out here all night?"

She didn't answer, but turned and placed her hand onto my chest. Despite how lightly she touched me, I still flinched in pain. "It hurts, doesn't it?"

There was no sense in lying to her. She's probably seen this many times before. I nodded and she slowly unbuttoned to the top part of my shirt. Peeling back the left side slowly, she held her fingers lightly on to the pulsating blue mound on my chest.

"I know what some might say...but I think it's beautiful. You know..." She looked at the mass, as if afraid to meet my gaze. "Last chance. You don't have to ride with me again."

I shook my head. "Nah. You're stuck with me, Zero Two. I'm in it for the long haul. We're in this together."

I wasn't going to back down. Even if I died today, I was going to be the one person who never treated her like a monster. I owed her that much, I figured. She brought me a lot of happiness even if I only had my webs for a few days. If I could treat her like an equal, and not give her the same treatment the world gave her, it would be a victory.

The answer seemed to have done the trick; she began to laugh, and began dancing and twirling around the lake in front of me. "That's just what I was hoping to hear, darling! Thank you!"

I smiled as she twirled around me. "Any time, Zero Two."

It seemed simple to me. When we piloted with Squad 26 later today, I was either going to die or I wasn't. And I wasn't really sure what was more scary.

* * *

Annoying Youtuber Voice: SmaAaAAaAaaAAash that fav button if you've got a little bit of gusto like Zorome


	7. No Risk, No Reward

Disclaimer: This is a purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

The mission wouldn't start for a little bit, and after my talk with Goro and the talk with Zero Two, I only had one choice if I wanted advice.

Mask on, suited up in the wee hours of the morning, I crawled through the vents of the plantation. I knew he was still here, I'd overheard he was still watching over our test squad, whatever that meant.

As I crawled through the vents over Dr. Franxx's lab, I was dismayed he'd had several bars installed to prevent me from getting in the stealthy way.

Figures.

I yanked at them, easily ripping them out with my strength, and dropped down into the laboratory, machines buzzing and whirring around me. Dr. Franxx, to his credit, just sighed in frustration. "I'm guessing I need stronger bars."

"Doctor," I gasped, unsuiting so that the blue and pulsating veins that spread across my torso were exposed to the air. "Help."

He turned around at my voice, and his annoyed expression fell when he saw the blue welt on my chest. "Oh my. What a beautiful color."

That was his response?! He led me over to a chair adjusted a setting on his mechanical eye. "Fascinating. When did this get here?"

I looked to the side. "After my second ride with Zero Two."

"Hmm," Doctor Franxx rubbed his metal chin. "First ride alters your already deviated genes, but this looks like something else entirely. I think you're doomed."

"Not the news I was hoping for." I sighed. "I'm not afraid to die, but just when things were getting interesting..."

"That's just how it is, frankly. Zero Two is a special Pistil, Code 016." He huffed. "Not just any Stamen can handle her. The question is, are you any ordinary Stamen?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, which, I'm sure he couldn't see under the mask. "You saying I can live?"

He shrugged back at me. "I doubt it. I've never seen any Stamen live through her. The only thing I could tell you is not to let her consume you."

"I...wait, what does that even mean?" I asked.

"Figure it out!" He groaned. He then began ushering me out of his lab. "Now go! I've work to do and you're taking up my valuable time."

I was maybe in there five minutes.

Don't let her consume me...?

I checked the time to see I was out of it. It was time for the mission.

Here goes nothing.

* * *

As I suited up, officially, I wondered if this would really be the last time. As the suit was lasered on, covering the tiny mounds on my wrists, I wondered if I would really die without knowing why I could do (almost) anything a spider could.

Well, no use letting my amazing powers distract me; I had a fight to get to. As I walked down the hallway towards where the Franxx were docked, but I was stopped as a familiar voice called to me, "hey, Hiro!"

I turned to see Ichigo walking up to me quickly. She looked a little distressed, and I couldn't help but keep the concern from my voice as I answered, "Yeah, what's up?"

For some reason, actually having my attention threw her off. "A-are you well rested for his mission, Hiro?"

"Not really, I was too excited to sleep." And by excited, I mean in too much ridiculous pain to do anything but toss and turn. "But I'm as sharp as ever, oh fearless leader!"

"Th-that's good. I couldn't sleep either, honestly," she admitted, sounding more nervous than I had her in a long time. "I took a bath though, so that helped..."

"That's refreshing..." I smiled at her. "Hey Ichigo?"

"Y-yeah, what's up?"

"Let's do our best out there, okay?" Through the pain, I gave the dopiest grin I could muster. "I'm counting on you guys, okay?"

She turned red, like I usually did with Zero Two, and stuttered back, "Y-yeah! I'm counting on you too because...because..."

Speaking of, behind her, I saw Zero Two walk out in her Pistil Suit. We made eye contact, and I waved to her. She nodded and made her way down to the Franxx. "Sorry Ichigo, you were saying?"

Ichigo whipped around to see where I looked, and turned back to me, a look on her face as though I had slapped her. I was taken aback by it. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I...I'm counting on you because I always thought of you as my big brother, Hiro."

If that was true, why did she sound so sad? "Well, I couldn't ask for a better younger sister. Let's get out of here, alright? We've got work to do."

Unfortunately, Zero Two and I were advised to stay in the back and provide support if anyone got too close. I guess it made sense; Strelitzia had the firepower to back it up.

Sitting on the entrance platform, Zero Two and I watched as Squad 26 and my own friends tore up the battlefield, the rest of my team providing backup. While we were winning the fight, it was easy to see that my comrades were green as all get out, letting too many Klaxosaurs through, while the visiting squadron operated in tandem like a well-oiled machine.

"They're sloppy," Zero Two laughed. "Without us, they'll be dead. Always in my way."

"I disagree." I told her, stretching out. She looked at me, maybe surprised that I didn't just comply with her. "They're my friends. I'd rather fight alongside them than alone. Makes it that much more fun."

She stared at me long and hard, like she was trying to figure me out. "If that's how you feel, darling, then I guess I don't mind it."

"I'm glad."

I contemplated asking her if she preferred to fight alone, but she asked me something instead before I could speak. "But why do you fight the Klaxosaurs, darling?"

I looked back at her, and I'm sure I had the dumbest look plastered on my face. "I...never really thought about it. I guess to protect the Adults."

"Oh. What a boring answer."

That's the whole reason we were here, right?

But why did I feel like I had once wanted something else? "Why do you fight them, Zero Two?"

"Because. I am a monster. They're monsters." I was taken aback. There was a venomous loathing in her voice. "Monsters have no place in the world."

I frowned. "You don't..."

The words got caught up in my throat as she turned and looked at me with a hard gaze. Almost an angry one. Not that the anger was directed at me, but just a long-held fury in her heart leaking out. "Let's go, darling. The Klaxosaurs are approaching."

I nodded and sat down in the Stamen seat, a bit embarrassed. To be honest, I should have been able to talk to her. I wish I had. But my mind was all too consumed with the pain.

But if I was going to die, my Inner Alarm would act up, right?

I certainly hoped so.

As Strelizia sprang to life, something immediately felt wrong in my chest. My breathing seized up, but I did my best to ignore it. Right now, I had a responsibility to kill as many Klaxosaurs as I could.

Together, we rushed the battlefield, impaling a Klaxosaur that Argenta was struggling with. Immediately, Delphiniums face appeared in our control center. "We didn't call for you! Retreat!"

"We're just covering your backs!" I contested, hotly, "No worries!"

"Don't be so bossy!" Strelizia's voice argued back as well.

It wasn't long before I was able to work together with the squad and clear out the remaining Klaxosaurs, Strelizia's spear making short work of the stragglers. While my teammates cheered, I collapsed back into my chair.

"Darling..." Zero Two's voice sounded purposefully cold. Was she...anticipating this? "Are you done?"

"No." I went to sit up, but I didn't have the strength in my core. I grunted, and shot a web line to the ceiling, pulling myself forward to grab the controls once more. "Not until the job is done."

"That's better."

As the battlefield ahead of us cleared, there was a rumble in the ground. Squad 26's Franxx all began to stumble, and out of nowhere, a massive, rectangular Klaxosaur emerged from the ground, knocking their entire fleet aside. The blocky beast began a slow but steady approach towards Plantation 13.

Hachi's voice rang out to every cockpit. "Squad 26 will fall back! Squad 13 is to handle that Klaxosaur."

"Sounds about right." I gasped as I gripped the controls, tighter. "Come on, let's make quick work of this."

My teammates rushed the Klaxosaur, running and clinging to its legs in an effort to slow the beast down, but the added weight didn't even phase the thing as it approached. "Amateurs," Zero Two scoffed.

She took lead, and kicked off the massive, gaping jaw of the Klaxosaur. With a twirl in the air, Strelizia mashed its spear into a crack on the spine of the beast, it letting out a massive roar of pain.

I slumped forward in my chair. Finally...

I heard yelling from Zero Two, and the rest of my squad. But as the room spun, it all felt very distant...

Weird...

If I was dying, why didn't my Alarm go off?

* * *

My eyes shot open, and I was back at the platform station where I had watched Naomi depart. But the world was greyscale, and I reached down to pinch myself.

I felt nothing.

"Ah...damn. Guess I died after all." I said to myself. "Well...I guess I had a good run."

"That's just like you."

I jumped and whipped around. "Naomi!" I cried, rushing forward to hug her, relieved she was okay. But as soon as my arms hit her, she vanished. "Huh?"

"You were always quick to give up. Be a martyr."

I turned around, and she was right behind me. But as I blinked, Naomi vanished.

"What does that even mean?! It's not like I chose to die." I muttered.

But that was a lie, wasn't it? I was resigned to this fate the second I had a growth on my chest. I never even tried to figure it out.

In the distance, I saw a tree around the side of the plantation. Jumping off the railing, I shot a web line - which I'm lucky I could still do in the afterlife, really, and swung around the side until I was close enough to land on the barren soil and walk towards it.

As I did, I saw Zero Two leaning up against it, sitting down, head in her knees.

"Hey...are you okay?" I asked, shouting towards the still-distant tree.

She said nothing, so I picked up the pace. "Zero Two!"

She didn't respond, but it looked like she was shaking.

As I reached the tree, I knelt down and grabbed her shoulders, but she would not budge.

I felt something soft touch my cheek. Snow? I looked up, and it was snowing, all around me.

When I looked down, I was back in the Garden where all the testing was done, away from Plantation 13. Zero Two was nowhere to be found. In front of me, I recognized the tree.

A mistletoe.

My head buzzed, and I placed my hand against the trunk. This...this was familiar. I'd been here before. I wanted to go back.

A small spider crawled down the trunk, onto my hand.

"Hey little guy. I really fucked up, huh?"

Without warning, the spider bit down, and the feeling sent a surge of electricity throughout my whole body.

The spider was gone, and instead, there was a little girl next to me, in a potato sack of some kind.

She had red skin and horns, though hers were much bigger than Zero Two's.

"Hey," I asked, "can you help me get out of here?"

But the girl, frightened, turned and ran from me. "Wait, don't go!" I called, giving chase.

I turned the corner around the tree, and suddenly I was back in Strelizia's cockpit, but not really. It was something of an out of body experience, similar to my first ride with Zero Two. I could see my own body slumped on the floor, and Zero Two desperately clawing against the giant Klaxosaur.

"IT GOT BACK UP?!" I shouted.

Amidst blow after blow from the massive beast, as it repeatedly slammed Strelizia against the wall of the plantation, Zero Two let out a pained sob.

Was she...crying?

I looked around the cockpit, the bloody mess it was as Zero Two took a beating, and I wondered...

How often had she done this? How often had she lost a Stamen during the third ride, and have to finish a fight, alone, with no backup, in the presence of a corpse? To stare death in the face.

But the real kicker, is what she choked out between sobs. I had to struggle to hear it, since she barely whispered it, but...

"...took my darling..."

She clawed angrily, getting bashed back by the Klaxosaur, and screamed through blood and tears. "YOU TOOK MY DARLING!"

I felt a gust of wind across my body. Suddenly, Zero Two and the cockpit looked far away, and I could feel myself falling downward. I looked up, from a giant pit of darkness as the only girl who ever actually believed in me got further away.

Was this really how my story ended? Dying, watching someone I love die as well?

Love?

Yeah. Love. I know that word.

And no! No! NO!

This is not the end! I refuse! If death is a choice, then I reject it!

Walls never stopped a spider! I found the edge, gripped the wall, and crawled up it, before breaking out into a vertical run out of the side of the pit. As my feet flew upwards, I shot web lines ahead of me, using my arms to pull myself against gravity towards the edge of the pit, towards the cockpit. I was so close. I couldn't let her do this alone...

* * *

I gasped, my eyes snapping back open on the floor of Strelizia's cockpit. I looked down at the blue veins on my arm and chest recede. This was my chance. Still wobbly, I shot a web line to the ceiling and pulled myself to my feet once more.

As I did, Zero Two was thrown backwards off of her Pistil mount. But I was quick enough to catch her, hugging her from behind before she could get thrown across the small room.

She tensed up at my touch. "Dar...ling?"

"I'm so sorry I left you alone there for a minute." I breathed into her neck. She relaxed into my arms at the sound of my voice. "It won't ever happen again. This is why I'm going to Pilot from now on. For you. I promise." Gently, I kissed the side of her neck. "Not to pilot. Not to fight. But to be with you. You won't be alone anymore."

I heard her sniffle and nuzzle into me further. 'Darling..."

She leaned back into me as we sat into the Stamen seat.

And Sterlitzia sprang to life.

The cockpit became filled with a heavy light, and I grabbed the controls. As the Klaxosaur lunged for us again, together, we struck its face with the Strelitzia's spear, spinning it around in a corkscrew. Finally, with a great heave, we threw the Klaxosaur off t the distance.

"Hiro! You're alive!" I heard Ichigo chime in on the comlink. Goro added a, "Thank goodness," for good measure.

"Of course I am, just had a minor inconvenience." I yelled back. You know, like death. "Hold it down and we'll finish this asshole off."

The team wasted no time getting into the position; as the Klaxosaur struggled back to get up, they all coordinated an attack to its legs, successfully kneecapping it and it collapsed to the ground. It struggled to transform, but the squad 13 Franxx held several openings in place for us.

"Take two?" I asked Zero Two.

"It stands no chance against us together!" She laughed.

"And you said I was embarrassing."

As my squadmates held the beast down, we took to the skies, aiming again for the crevice on the back of the Klaxosaur. Pinned down, it was now opened wider, exposing the core deeper below. Thrusting downward, we shattered through the entire thing until the core and our spear hit the earth. The Klaxosaur exploded around us, covering Strelitzia in a shower of blue blood.

"I guess we're a little messy," I chuckled to my partner.

"The best times always are, darling."

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. "I did it. I made it. I didn't die."

Zero Two turned and hugged me, and I don't think I'd ever felt such a warm embrace. "And you were great. And you will be. Every other time. Remember?" She winked at me. "You promised."

I laughed. 'Yup. You're stuck with me now. I can be annoyingly persistent."

* * *

To say I was swarmed by my squadmates would be an understatement, as they pulled me to them and laughed about how worried they had been for a second.

"I promise, I kind just got knocked out of my seat for a minute," I assured them, leaving out the part where I was fucking dead for a good minute. "Nothing to worry about."

Goro gave me a look that he wasn't' buying it, but I gave him a thumbs up. I put my hand where the pulsating mass had been on my chest. For whatever reason, it was gone, receded down into nothing. He seemed to relax a bit, and we waited for extraction.

"That was really something Hiro!" Kokoro beamed to me. "You really make a great Pilot."

"Well I wouldn't have been able to do it without..." I turned around to bring Zero Two in on this, but she was gone. I looked around, confused. She had left Strelizia with me. "...Zero Two."

She had wandered off to the side, away from the group, waiting for extraction.

As I turned back to my friends, laughing and joking, I realized that while I was part of the team, she wasn't, and she was choosing that.

I'd have to figure out why.


	8. Unwelcome Guests

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

"The beach, huh?" Mitsuru echoed as Ichigo finished reading the note. He didn't sound very impressed.

He was the only one though, the rest of the squad seemed quite excited about the reward we were being given by Papa and the others for our heroic defending of the kissing process.

I would have been excited too, but my Inner Alarm was buzzing. For some reason, I didn't think this was a good idea. Still, a little fun is in order, right? I'll just have to stay on my toes, I figured.

"It says they'll be transporting us soon, so you all better get ready!" Ichigo laughed. It was nice to see her in a good mood.

My eyes traveled the room, noticing a distinct lack of pink hair. "I'll go let Zero Two know."

"Don't be late like last time, Hiro," Goro teased, and I just stuck my tongue out at him as I left.

"Zero Two! We have good news!" I called down the halls.

No answer. Maybe her room? I rapped the door lightly with my knuckles, receiving no answer. The baths seemed the next most likely answer. Knocking on those, I called out for Zero Two, again receiving no answer.

Time was not waiting for me, so I figured the small lake was the next best location. By now, I was a pro at using web lines to propel myself there at no time. I absentmindedly landed in a squatting position - my spider abilities made me more flexible. "Zero Two!"

I was knocked onto my butt as she jumped from the water, again, with a fish in her mouth, completely naked. "WHOA!"

She spit the fish out of her mouth and giggled. "Darling, you pervert! If I didn't know better, I think you came out here to see me naked on purpose this time!"

My face burned up as I looked away. "N-no actually. I have good news...they're taking us to a beach as a reward for the fight..."

Zero Two's jaw dropped, and I got even more flushed as she grabbed my hands and pulled me close to her. Her wet, naked breasts pressed against my chest. "The ocean? The REAL Ocean?!"

I nodded, trying to figure out why my pants felt tighter for some reason. She mashed her lips to mine, giving me a kiss similar to the one when we first piloted, and I could feel my heart speed up.

Love. I love her.

She pulled away and began pulling me towards the house. "Come on, darling, we're going to the beach."

"GET DRESSED FIRST!"

* * *

"Let's go this way, darling!"

I couldn't help but grin at Zero Two's childlike enthusiasm. She seemed so happy to be at the ocean, she immediately pulled me into the water. She turned, splashing me and laughing.

It had been a long time since I'd had fun like this, splashing her back, using my enhanced strength to give her a real fight. "No fair, darling."

Without warning, she jumped at me and I tensed up, thinking she was going to kiss me again...but she just licked my cheek instead, causing me to yelp in surprise.

Seeing my alarmed face, she burst out laughing. "Your taste really does make my heart race. Were you expecting another kiss?"

I found myself unable to look her in the eye; my gaze kept drifting away. "M-maybe. I wouldn't mind. I can't seem to keep focused."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "I was naked when I first met you, you know."

"Y-yeah, I know."

"Anyway, a kiss is a special thing," Zero Two replied, never dropping the teasing nature of her voice. "It's a declaration that the other person belongs to you."

I looked back and tilted my head to her. "It is?"

She responded in kind, tilting her head at me questioningly. "Oh? Have you done it with someone other than me."

My Inner Alarm began blaring in my head, my skull practically vibrating with warning. I'm not entirely certain if it was because this was a loaded question that required a tactful response, or because Zorome and Goro were under the water, ready to grab my foot. Maybe it was both. But I was so thrown off by the question, I was left open for my friends as they yanked me down below the surface and pull me away. I could hear Zero Two utter in complete confusion, "Darling...?"

I gasped for air when they finally hauled me out of the water on the shoulders of Zorome, Goro, and Futoshi. From a few yards away, Zero Two looked at me, puzzled. I just shrugged, and she fell on her back to swim.

I was dumped, unceremoniously, on my butt by the other three once ashore. "Um. Ow? What was this all about?"

"Well you had a pretty big look of panic on your face, so I came to your rescue!" Zorome crowed, proudly.

"Actually, he wanted to ask you something," Futoshi added.

"Hey, shut up!"

I chuckled as I stood up and brushed the sand off my shorts. "Okay, what's up?"

Zorome and Futoshi looked at each other, and then each grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. "WHAT'S A KISS?!" They screamed in unison.

"THAT'S what you dragged me away for?" I yelled, breaking them off me. "You pulled me all the way over here to ask?"

I backed away but was stopped by a hand clapping my shoulder. I looked behind me to see Goro, holding onto me with a dead-serious expression on his face, taking me by surprise. He never looked this way. Did something happen?

"Hiro..."

"What's up?" I asked.

"I..." He inhaled sharply. "I ALSO DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT A KISS IS!"

My face fell. Maybe I should have stayed dead yesterday. "Oh come on! Not you too!"

"Please Hiro!" Goro dropped to his knees. "We must know!"

"Oof. Come on man, don't beg." I put my face into my palms and groaned. "Okay okay, fine. You guys win."

I looked up, and the three were sitting in front of me, looking up expectantly like I was some kind of teacher.

"It's..." I furrowed my brow. I've done this twice, suddenly I'm an expert. "It's when two people put their lips together."

"You can do something with your mouth other than eat?!" Futoshi gasped.

"You breathe out of yours sometimes," Goro mumbled.

"Also, you know, talking," I quipped. "But yeah. It's special. It feels warm and makes you feel very close to the other person."

I was of course referring to Zero Two, but then I stopped when I remembered that when I had tried with Ichigo, it was the opposite; awkward and wrong.

Suddenly Zorome stood up and grabbed me by my shoulders again. Why was everyone doing this today? I just wanted to swim with my partner. "Hiro!"

I shifted my eyes. "Uh...yeah?"

"Show me."

My Inner Alarm blared again as Zorome tried to push his face towards me, so I shoved him away. "N-not like that! It has to be with the right person!"

"What are you guys doing?"

As if this little lecture couldn't get more awkward, Ichigo walked over to us, probably attracted by all the damn screaming everyone decided to do when demanding I taught them the mysteries of life.

"We were just asking Hiro what a kiss was!" Futoshi laughed.

Ichigo's face drained of color, and she began fidgeting nervously. "Y-yeah, it's when you put your mouth on someone else's."

"Oh? Have you kissed someone before?" Goro asked. I raised an eyebrow; he sounded jealous.

"What! No!" Ichigo shouted, "Of course not! Never! Why would you ask? Shut up!"

Ugh. Subtle.

"Hey, you guys, we can't find Kokoro!" I looked up to see Miku and Ikuno heading towards us. "Or Mitsuru for that matter!" Miku added as she approached us.

"I'll go look for them!" I blurted out. Anything to get me away from this topic of conversation. Not waiting for a response, I ran over to Ikuno and asked where they had last seen the two of them.

"They went walking that way," Ikuno advised, dully. She didn't seem overly concerned.

"Cool, thanks."

I took off down the beach and looked out into the water. I didn't see Zero Two anywhere. Could she have taken off as well?

Looks like I was wrangling up a few people today. I raised my arms to shoot a web line up the hill, but I could hear the others coming behind me to look as well. Damn. Looks like I was doing this the normal way.

Climbing up a hilly area, I paused as I came across what looked like tiny, desolate skyscrapers. Wait! I had read about these! These were houses! This was a town...like a small, isolated city.

I looked around to the battered buildings and boarded up windows. It looked like nature had definitely been taking the land back with overgrowth, but the houses themselves were still standing, with fences and street signs littering the place.

"Whoa..." I heard Zorome say behind me as he made it up the hill. "What is this place?"

"Looks like an old civilization," Ikuno mused. "I wonder if Kokoro and Mitsuru went to explore it."

"Let's split up." Goro suggested. "We'll cover more ground that way."

The others agreed, pairing off and wondering down various roads. I volunteered to go by myself, and wasted no time scaling the back of a building, heading up the bell tower of an old building to get a good aerial view of the place. I had to be at least four stories up by the time I perched on top of the tower! Making sure no one was below me to see, I looked out over the horizon into the ocean and the old buildings.

Is this what Zero Two meant? About getting away from the lifeless cities? I had to give it to her; the vibrant greens and blues of this place were way better to look at than fluorescent yellow and oranges of the city.

"It's beautiful, isn't it darling?"

I jumped and crawled down the side of the bell tower. Peeking my head down the top of the window, I saw Zero Two, still in her swimsuit, leaning against the window ledge, looking out at the sea.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

She leaned up on her toes and licked my forehead. "You taste the same upside down."

I flipped myself down, crouching on the ledge next to her. "Shouldn't I?"

She shrugged. "It never hurts to check, does it?"

"Guess not." I looked back over the water. "You're right though. I had no idea places like this even existed."

"I wish we never had to go back, darling." Zero Two said, in barely more than a whisper to hide the longing in her voice.

She wasn't wrong. As cool as piloting Franxx were, this sort of idyllic, peaceful life was something I could get used to. "Same here."

"Then let's stay here, darling."

I turned and looked at her, surprised. Her expression was apprehensive...was she worried about what I would say?

I opened my mouth to answer, but my head began to buzz in warning, and I could hear a voice down at the bottom of the building.

"So, you're the leader of this squad?"

I narrowed my eyes. This was an unfamiliar, flamboyant voice. Cocky, and an air of rudeness. Zero Two, however, seemed to know it, and pushed past me as she jumped down to the roof of the building. I scaled down the tower after her, following the voice.

"Um, actually, no..." Goro responded.

"That would be me," Ichigo huffed to the intruder, indignantly.

"Oh, you're so short and adorable!" The flamboyant voice laughed. "How precious."

I winced, just hearing the exchange. That wouldn't sit well with Ichigo. I crawled over to Zero Two, who was crouching on the roof, peering over the side. Following her gaze, I saw a group of what I could only assume to be Parasites, all of them in a red suit similar to hers.

Zero Two scowled. "The Nines..."

"The...who?" I whispered.

Ichigo scowled but froze up as the blonde boy walked forward and kissed her hand. "I'm Nine Alpha, leader of the Nines."

"The special forces unit?!" Ichigo gasped, stepping back. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, originally," Alpha rested his arms behind his head, "we came here to talk to Iota."

"Iota?" Goro asked.

"Oh right. She goes by Zero Two, I forgot." Alpha's tone dripped with disapproval. "We received orders that as soon as she's done draining her new Stamen, she is to return to our squad."

"Oh good," I muttered, "I love when people talk about me behind my back." I looked next to me and saw Zero Two had disappeared. "How is she so sneaky?!"

"What do you mean drained Hiro?" Ichigo asked.

Alpha scoffed, as did the rest of the Nines. I was liking these people less by the minute. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors. Iota is cursed. She drains the humanity from any Stamen she rides with until there is nothing left of them. I've seen her devour over one hundred men, and those are the only the ones I'm _aware_ of." He rolled his eyes. "Code 016 is foolish to think he's any different."

Well that settled it, I was NOT a fan of this guy. From out of the building I was crouched on top of, Zero Two booted out of the door and stormed out. "What do you want, Alpha?"

"Oh, THERE'S Iota," Alpha laughed. "Snooping as usual, I see."

Zero Two marched right up to him. "You can tell Papa not to expect me any time soon! I plan on riding with my darling from here on out."

There was a murmur going up around the Nines. "And how do you think he can last until there's nothing left of that pathetic, human body of his?"

"My darling will be just fine," Zero Two spat, defiantly.

"Hmm, so you're content to sit here and pretend to be human?"

I felt myself clench my fists. Zero Two, for all her flaws, was not a monster. Horns be damned. She didn't seem to agree though, as she stepped back, still furious but at a loss for words.

"You will be alone forever!" One of the female Nines scoffed.

"But there is actually another reason we're looking for the squad leader," Alpha added. "See, we found two of your squadmates with...contraband."

I leaned forward as three identical people stepped forth, surrounding Kokoro and Mitsuru. I guess it's good they were found, at least. The three pushed those two forward.

"Hey, don't be mean to Kokoro!" Futoshi yelled.

"What's the meaning of this?" Ichigo scowled, taking a step forward. "What's this talk of contraband?"

"What I mean..." Alpha, with his jovial smile, held up a book titled, 'What to Expect for Your First Child.' He waved the cover across his face and scowled. "Is that this girl was reading about childbirth."

"...so?" Miku asked.

"That sort of thing has been banned by Papa," Alpha grinned. "I'm afraid these two must face punishment."

I decided it was the right time to step in, as I slipped on my mask and activated my suit.

The Nines began advancing upon Kokoro and Mitsuru as Alpha twirled the book in his hands.

THWIP!

Crouched on the point of the roof, I used a well-placed web line to yank the book from Alpha's hand. Every eye in the area flew up to look at me as I snatched the book out of the air. I could see a small smile crawl over Zero Two's face.

"Didn't Papa ever tell you it's rude to steal?" I quipped down to Alpha as I met his gaze.

Alpha looked cross between amused and furious as he tried to cross his arms casually. "Oh? And who might you be?"

Not prepared for that question, I said the first thing to pop into my head.

"Oh, you know. Just your friendly, abandoned-city Spider-Man."


	9. Friendly, Plantation Spider-Man

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

Murmurs of the word, "Spider-Man," went up amongst all parties as I thumbed through the pages of the book.

Childbirth? Reproduction?

I furrowed my brows. Way back in the Garden, we were told that differences between us as boys and girls was what decided that we were to be Parasites, not adults. That other than that, it just made us imperfect creatures, and not to worry about those differences. I remembered as a child asking why this difference made us Parasites if it didn't matter.

Like all my questions, it had been ignored.

Was...was this why we were different? To make new humans?

"I don't care who you are," Alpha flipped his hair back, "that doesn't belong to you. In ordinance with Papa's decree, you must return it."

"Nah," I shrugged. "I need some new reading material anyway."

My Inner Alarm went off, and I realized there was one less Nine than there was when I had stolen the book. "Hey, hold that thought, sparky."

I threw the book up in the air and backflipped over the same Nine who had trash-talked Zero Two earlier. She had been trying to sneak up behind me and went careening off the roof as she tackled the air where I had been. I shot a web line as I landed, catching her feet and attaching it to the roof, leaving the Nine dangling upside down as I casually caught the book. "Stealing AND sneak attacks? You guys sure don't have any manners at the top, do you?"

Nine Alpha looked thoroughly pissed. "You may be the most disgusting human I've ever met."

"Thanks, it's part of my charm."

"D-DON'T MOVE!"

I tilted my head to the side to see Ichigo pointing at me, threateningly. Not pointing anything in particular, like a gun or anything, just her finger. "You broke into our plantation! You'll need to be turned in!"

Well, I wasn't expecting this, but I knew she was a stickler for rules. I shifted my eyes back and forth. "Um...no?"

"What do you mean, 'no?!'" Ichigo hissed.

"Something fun happens and of course you'd be against it," Zero Two rolled her eyes

"Oh my, for once we agree on something, Code 015," Alpha muttered.

Wait how did I just become the bad guy? "Tough crowd. I can see when I'm not wanted."

Amidst cries of anger, I shot a web line to the bell tower and jettisoned myself away a few buildings over, a bit frustrated. What was the expression? No good deed goes unpunished?

I could hear footsteps rustling around the streets below. Were they really all after me? What a pain. I crawled down through a window in an old house and removed my mask and suit. Guess if they were looking for Spider-Man, it was best to hide as Hiro.

Shoving the small book in my pocket, I walked out into the street, running into Miku and Zorome. "You guys have any luck finding Kokoro and Mitsuru?"

"Oh man, Hiro you missed the coolest thing! Why are you always so behind?!" Zorome groaned.

* * *

Eventually I gathered with my squad and assured them again I had not seen a man in a spider mask.

We all gathered on a hill overlooking the water. As the sun began to set. In the confusion, the Nines had left, and while none of us were complaining, it left an air of unease over the group.

"You know, I can't but wonder about this place." Kokoro said. "Did the Adults used to live here before they moved to the City?"

"Humans used to live here." We all jumped as Zero Two spoke up, sitting on top of a nearby rock. "Until...they abandoned it."

My squad seemed to absorb the words as he all stared out at the sunset.

Why...

Why would anyone leave a place like this?

* * *

As we made our way back to the beach, we were surprised that a meal had been set up and cooked for us, again setting me at unease, though everyone else seemed pretty happy about it.

"Here, Zero Two, you should eat," Goro smiled, handing her a kabob. He and I made eye contact, and I smiled at him, gratefully. I'm glad that at the least, he was willing to include her.

As everyone laughed and joked, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see Zero Two smiling at me. "I'm going to for another swim, darling."

I nodded to her. But as she walked back to the water, I couldn't help but wonder about what Nine Alpha had said.

Was I on borrowed time? Would she really devour me? She seemed to think I would be fine. I never felt like I shouldn't trust her. But then again, I legitimately died for a while in that last fight, and not once did I feel in danger.

As I laid in my sleeping bag, I realized that I should just be asking her these questions. I was being dumb. She was my partner, and I was her darling, as it were. I should talk to her and understand her better.

I sat up in my bag. She'd never come back from swimming.

As I began to walk towards a beach, I heard someone call to me. "Hey, Hiro."

I whipped around to see Ichigo walking towards me. "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

I shook my head. "With everything that happened? With Kokoro finding that book and the spider guy? Nah."

"Can I walk with you a bit?" She asked.

I froze momentarily. I wanted to go talk to Zero Two about what the Nines had said. But if I did that, Ichigo would know I had heard a conversation I hadn't been present for; and no one on my squad dared to bring up how I would allegedly be devoured of all humanity.

But she looked like she had something on her mind. "Sure, Ichigo."

We walked across the shoreline for a while after a few minutes, I heard her say, quietly, "I'm going to do better as a leader, Hiro."

Certainly wasn't expecting that. "Hm?"

"Being a leader means protecting my squad," Ichigo said, following my footsteps in the sand. "And I feel like I have been too reliant to you and Strelizia to watch our backs in the battlefield."

"We all worked together to defeat that last Klaxosaur," I replied. "And besides, Zero Two and I kind of went off without listening to orders. Being leader can't be easy."

"Well...I'm going to do my best to look out for everyone, as leader, okay?"

I turned and smiled at her. "Well, I have full confidence in you, Ichigo. I'm glad you're my leader."

"I'm glad too...so...Hiro...I want..."

She took a deep breath, looking like she was really struggling with what she wanted to say. "I want you to look out for all of us too! Not just Zero Two. Okay? I'm trusting you to look out for me as well. You're...you're really special to me."

I was taken aback but chuckled. "Of course, Ichigo. You're special to me too."

At first, I thought she was talking about the whole, "brother-sister," conversation from the other day. But before I knew it, she walked over to me, and had grabbed my chin in her hand. Yanking herself onto her toes, she pressed her lips to mine, making it the second kiss I had that day.

Unlike how I usually felt with Zero Two on these, my head buzzed in warning. This was not a situation that was going to end well.

As Ichigo released me from her liplock and backed away, I heard rustling in the bushes nearby. I looked around, seeing no one, but I wasn't sure how to feel about this.

"I...I think I'm going to bed," Ichigo said, blushing. "Goodnight Hiro."

"Y-yeah," was all I managed to stutter out.

Oh man...I went out to try and understand Zero Two better, and now I was just confused about Ichigo.

I should have stayed dead.

* * *

I stayed out later that night, looking for Zero Two, but I couldn't find her, even from the bell tower. Maybe wherever she was, she didn't want to be found. I found myself back on the bell tower, looking at my wrists.

If Zero Two had Klaxosaur blood, and was considered a monster...was I monster?

I don't think I'm a monster. I'm just...me. Hiro. The same Hiro who named all his friends. But if they knew, would they look at me the same way they looked at Zero Two?

I thought about how supposedly she drained the lives of Stamens. And yeah, I definitely had seen what happened to Mitsuru and that other Stamen when we first met. But why did it happen? She didn't do anything...weird when Piloting. Was it on purpose?

I wasn't convinced. As the moon shone over the ocean, I found myself really wishing we could all stay here. There were no Klaxosaurs here, and if society could run without magma energy...were we really all the better off for it?

And then there was Ichigo. Did she...did she feel the way about me I feel about Zero Two?

I put my head in my hands. "What do I do about all this?"

Sighing, I began to trudge back to camp. As I stuck my hands in my pockets, I realized I still had that book about pregnancy and childbirth. I had been reading through it after looking for Zero Two.

At least I knew these feelings were human.

Speaking of...

* * *

"Oh, what's this?"

I was awoken by the sound of Kokoro's voice as the others were packing up to leave.

"Isn't that the book you found yesterday?" Miku asked. "What's that note say?"

At the mention of the brief kerfuffle yesterday, everyone gathered around. Kokoro had found the book I had left for her, in the small spider web next to her sleeping bag. "The note says, 'happy reading, from your friendly, plantation Spider-Man.'"

"Oh gross, that spider guy was watching you sleep, Kokoro!" Futoshi fumed.

"C-can I keep the book, Ichigo?" Kokoro asked, hugging it tightly to her chest. "I know it's against the rules, but I'm just curious."

Ichigo went red as the focus was turned to her on the sensitive topic. "Just...just read it quick and we'll pretend it didn't happen."

Kokoro heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you Ichigo. And...thank you, Spider-Man."

"Don't thank that criminal!" Mitsuru seethed. "He's been fighting Papa's men."

"No one whose actually friendly has to proclaim themselves as friendly." Ikuno added.

I decided it was best not to interject, lest they suspect that I was Spider-Man. But from across the beach, I spotted Zero Two. We made eye contact, and though she smiled at me, it almost looked like she was looking through me.

* * *

Once back at the plantation, it sounded like we would be right back to our usual Klaxosaur busting routine tomorrow, so we all unofficially decided to call it a lazy day.

As I wandered the halls, I heard a soft, "thunk," repeating in the library. I walked in, curiously, and chuckled as I saw Zero Two pulling books, one by one, off one of the shelves, and after one glance inside each book, she let it fall haphazardly to the floor beside her. "What're you up to?"

She jumped, slightly, at my voice. She must have been really engrossed in what she was doing. "Hello darling. Just looking for a specific book."

"Do you want some help?" I asked. "I know the library pretty well."

She paused, considering the offer. "I'm looking for a picture book."

My forehead stung. This again? It's been a minute. I pushed the static out of my forehead. "Picture book, huh? I don't know if we have any of those. I can check the illustrated guides, maybe."

She nodded and began pulling books down in the same habit.

I made my way over to the guides and began looking for anything that could count as a picture book. As the two of us worked, I looked over my shoulder to see her move to another shelf. "Hey, Zero Two?"

"Hm?" Was her response, engrossed in her work.

I gulped. Okay. Now or never. "Those people from yesterday. The Nines. What was all that they meant about devouring humanity?"

I could see the tension rise up in her shoulders, and the book, this time, stayed in her hand. "...why do you ask, darling?"

Uh oh. I already fucked this up. "Well, I mean, I've ridden with you three times and I'm no worse for wear. And I'm your partner. I want to understand you better. What they said seemed really out of line, so I wanted to talk to you about it."

That was a good response, right?

...Right?

"Understand me better...?" She paused. "Darling, I'm a monster. There's not much to understand."

"I don't..." I swallowed. "I don't think you're a monster."

"Well then," she paused before whipping around, storming over to me and pushing me against a shelf. "If you think I'm so human, kiss me."

She began closing in on me, mouth open, and I noticed it - her fangs had grown longer. As I noticed, she seemed to pick up on it and immediately stepped away. "Never mind."

"Hey, what -" I began, but she turned away.

"I'll look alone, darling. Don't worry about it."

Ugh. Smooth as ever, Hiro. "Sorry," I apologized quietly, turning and walking out of the library.

* * *

I sat out on the back porch, staring into the trees. Every time I tried to make things better, things just seemed to get worse. Sighing, I looked up as Goro sat down next to me.

"You okay, Hiro?"

I shook my head. "I've got a lot on my mind, is all."

"Like...your kiss with Ichigo?" Goro asked, sadly.

Excuse me, what the fuck. Was he the rustling I heard in the bushes? "You saw that? It surprised me."

Goro snorted, but the laugh sounded forced. "Not me."

"What do you mean?"

He gave me and incredulous look. "For someone so smart, you can be a real idiot, Hiro. She's always looked at you that way. The way you look at Zero Two. And I think something the Nines said to us all yesterday really scared her."

She has?

Oh...

Oh. Shit. She has. Wow, I really am stupid. Not only that, I have to play stupid too. "I guess I never really knew. What did the Nines say?"

"They talked about Zero Two...Hiro, it's worse than we thought," Goro's expression turned grim, "She's killed more than one hundred Stamen. They say she devours their humanity."

"Well...I feel fine. Like for real this time, no weird growths on my chest." I assured him. "And she doesn't Pilot any differently than the others. I want to try and understand her better. Get closer to her."

"And Ichigo wants to get closer to you."

It dawned on me why his tone sounded so depressed. "...and you want to get closer to her."

He nodded, looking into the trees himself. "I'm certain that's what this feeling is. When you told us about kissing, she was all I could think about."

"I'm sorry, man. I never wanted any of us to get hurt." I frowned. All this strength, the web shooting, and finally able to Pilot, and all I had to show for it was taking a book back from some jerks.

Goro pat me on the back. "We'll figure it out, Hiro. We're a team, right."

I looked to him and smiled. Goro always knew what to say. "Yeah. Together."

We exchanged a fist pound, and I decided to call it a day.

* * *

That night though, I was plagued by a strange dream. But it didn't feel like a dream. It was like I was seeing through someone else's eyes as they stared out a window. From what I could tell, this was Zero Two's room. The body I was in placed their hand on the window, and I realized I was actually seeing things through her eyes. Weird.

There was a low rumbling, and she whipped around. A hole had opened up in her floor, and dozens of bloody men in stamen suits came were struggling to climb up from this dark void. They were clawing across the floor, trying to reach her as she backed away. All of them repeating the same things:

"Not good enough."

"Not enough Klaxosaurs."

"You'll never find your darling."

"You'll never be human."

The pile of dead, writhing bodies became more violent as they tried to reach her. And right before I woke up, I saw that at the top of the pile...was me. Dead, eyes gouged out, and blood dripping down my face. My corpse simply said, "alone," and my eyes jolted open in my bed.

I sat up in a cold sweat, my head pounding. I'd never had a dream like that before. Why was I seeing through her eyes?

I took a few deep breaths for a few minutes, trying to calm my nerves.

Was that maybe...her dream? Unable to rest, I looked out the window, doing a double take as I saw Zero Two, walk out of the house into the garden, looking up at the sky. She started absentmindedly poking at her teeth.

Quietly, I slipped out of the room, and made my way out to the garden next to her. She didn't flinch as I sat on the grass beside her.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Me either." I replied. "Hey...I'm sorry about earlier. But...I did mean it. I don't think you're a monster. And I want to understand you better."

She managed a small smile and rested her head on my shoulder. I could feel my heart flutter as she did. We sat like that for a while, and she said, quietly, "Hey darling?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's kill lots of Klaxosaurs tomorrow."


	10. What's a Team?

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

"This is a Moho class Klaxosaur approaching the plantation," Hachi explained, pointing to the Klaxosaur roughly the same size as a Franxx at the screen. "We'll be deploying...all of you."

He glanced towards Zero Two with just a hint of unease as he said this, but she smiled to me as he did. I don't know if he was thrilled that Zero Two was still sticking around, but she seemed to be.

"As always, Ichigo will be the field commander out there." Hachi finished. "Now go suit up."

* * *

"Hey, I like your white suit," I said as I met up with Zero Two at Strelizia. "It makes me think you're really part of the team!"

Zero Two took her sucker out of her mouth and raised an eyebrow at me. "Part of the team?" She laughed. "Don't compare me to those weaklings, darling."

It was hard for me to hide the hurt look on my face, and she seemed to realize it when she saw. "Those are my friends. I'm really glad we're all fighting together," I replied, slowly.

She paused. "You're right. Humans are social creatures, aren't they darling?"

I nodded.

"They...mean a lot to you, don't they?" Zero Two asked.

The question surprised me. But I nodded again. "We've been together, all of us, a long time. Maybe we fight sometimes, but that's kind of what friends and family do, you know?"

She turned away, and for a minute I wondered if I had messed up again, but she walked over to her Pistil mount. "Then I'll do my best, darling."

"Thanks, Zero Two."

Ichigo was barking orders as we took our places for the oncoming Klaxosaur as it drew close. But before it was in striking range, it unleashed some sort of weird liquid attack against Strelizia, Argenta, and Chlorophytum. I looked around the cockpit for any signs of issues...

And there was nothing. But my head was buzzing in warning.

"A bluff attack?" Zero Two scoffed. "Nonsense! Let's show it what we're made of, darling!"

"Strelizia, wait!" Ichigo cried, but it was too late, we had already taken off and impaled the hell out of the Klaxosaur without lance. As it exploded around us in a shower of blood, I felt a bit let down.

"Well, that was kind of anticlimactic, huh?" I asked. I looked up as some of the Klaxosaur blood began to drip from the ceiling. "Hey, do we have a leak? Are any of you guys leaking?"

"I don't think it's harmful, darling." Zero Two replied.

"Yeah, you're probably, - HOLY NAKED YOU'RE CRAP!" I screamed out in shock.

Whatever the liquid was that sprayed over our Franxx had dripped down through the exoskeleton of the bot and, somehow, on contact with Zero Two, began melting off her Pistil uniform.

She looked back at herself, nonplussed, and smiled at me. "Darling, you pervert, I can see you're enjoying yourself."

I turned crimson and realized my already tight suit was for some reason tighter around my nether regions. We immediately flew out of sync.

"Damn Hiro, why did you have to say something?!" Zorome shouted through his com.

"You pervert, stop ogling me!" Miku screamed.

"Wait, it's happening to me too!" Ikuno sounded pretty freaked out. "Don't look at me."

"I'm not," Mitsuru deadpanned.

Zero Two laughed; this was apparently a hilarious situation, despite my discomfort.

Then, my Inner Alarm rocked my head, and I began to look around frantically.

As the three of us flew out of sync, the worst and, in my opinion, most improbable thing happened: some sort of floating Klaxosaur that looked like a mess of balloons descended from behind some storm clouds. "Excuse me, what the fuck!" I shouted amidst the confusion.

A massive tendril of black and blue reached out from the Klaxosaur, and my cries were ignored. As I grabbed the controls to regain control, it was too late.

But at the last second, Delphinium tackled Strelizia out of the way and was absorbed into the Klaxosaur. As the Franxx disappeared, an emergency ejection was shot across the sky. Being the only active Franxx, Genesta caught it.

And then the Klaxosaur exploded. Not, dissolved into a rain of blue blood, but a loud fiery explosion that deafened us all momentarily.

"Return to base! Now!" Hachi barked.

I stared in horror at the mass of smoke in the sky, no trace of the Klaxosaur or Delphinium remained. Had they both ejected? They had to be okay, right?

As sight returned, I gasped. The Klaxosaur was still there, just smaller than it had been, apparently some of the explosion had blown off its outer layer.

But it was reforming.

"Darling, we should get moving," Zero Two replied, flatly.

"R-right."

* * *

To say we all rushed out of our Franxx to check the ejection pod was an understatement, Nana handing the girls towels to cover themselves. The pod had been brought into the hangar by the transport team, and all of us gathered around it.

It opened, revealing Goro, sitting there in shock, having not moved from his Stamen seat. Even as he was approached by Nana and Hachi, he couldn't look up to meet their gazes.

"She ejected me." Was all he could mutter before breaking down into a sob.

* * *

We were told to get cleaned up and we would be called to regroup within a few hours. I had returned to the house in silence. How could I let myself get distracted?!

Ichigo asked me to look out for her and everyone else! And I let her down.

I sat on my bed, head in my hands, trying to figure out what we were supposed to do. If anything.

Even if I didn't return her feelings, I cared about Ichigo. Was she dead? They said they couldn't find her signal.

Outside in the yard, I could hear Zorome and Miku arguing through my window.

"This is your fault!" Miku yelled, sounding on the verge of tears. 'If you hadn't been such a perv, we would have been able to stop that."

"You were the one who threw us off sync by freaking out!" Zorome yelled back.

"You guys are forgetting who was the one who threw us all out of focus in the first place." That voice belonged to Mitsuru. "Who was the one who attacked out of order and caused us to get drenched in that weird liquid anyway? Strelizia."

"What are you saying, Mitsuru?" That was Kokoro.

"I'm saying it was that monster and Hiro. Maybe she really is taking his humanity."

My fists clenched. I wanted to be angry. I was just as human as ever.

...but...it was my fault.

"SHUT UP!"

I jumped. That was Goro, who sounded like he had just slammed a door to go out to the yard. It certainly made everyone else go quiet. "Is this ANYWAY for you guys to behave? While you were busy bickering and arguing, the only one looking out for the team WAS ICHIGO!"

A silence hung over the courtyard. After a moment, Goro continued. "Before she ejected me, she told me it was a leader's job to look out for her team. But you know what? She's wrong. A team should LOOK OUT FOR EACH OTHER. SO, STOP POINTING YOUR DAMN FINGERS AT EACH OTHER BEFORE ANYONE ELSE DIES!"

Another door slam told me Goro had come back in the house, and more than likely, he'd want to come to our room to be alone. As I stepped out into the hall, I saw Zero Two was there.

"Hey," I said, weakly.

She wasted no time grabbing my hand and pulling me down the hall to an empty room.

"Do you agree with them?" Zero Two asked. She must have heard the conversation from the hallway. It wasn't hard; they were all pretty loud. "Do you think this was our fault?"

I closed my eyes and nodded. "It feels like it. We were careless. At the end of the day, that would have been me and you if not for her."

Zero Two leaned back against a wall, hands crossed behind her head. "I'm not sure what the fuss is. If you're weak, you die. That's just how it is as Para-"

"STOP!"

Zero Two stopped and looked up at me, surprised. I was surprised too, I had never raised my voice to her before, but to say I was on edge would be underselling it. She had hit a nerve.

"Sorry," I breathed. "Look...I don't care if you think they're weak. Okay? Maybe we're weak. Maybe we're all just a bunch of weak, stupid humans, if that's what you think about us. But I care about them."

Zero Two looked to her feet. "You're right. I'm sorry...I need to kill more Klaxosaurs."

"I...what?" I asked. "What does that have to do with anything?

She shook her head. "Anyway, it's not like she's actually dead."

Whoa, time out.

I leaned forward and grabbed her shoulders. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"Oh right, you guys don't have eyes as good as mine." She replied. "Delphinium was still in there."

"You probably should have started with that piece of information," I said. "We need to let Hachi and Nana know!"

Zero Two rolled her eyes. "They won't believe you, darling. They only care about stopping the Klaxosaur. They already figured she's lost."

She leaned back and looked out the window. "It's how all the Adults think."

"Then..." I paused and clenched my fist. No. I wasn't losing anyone today. "We'll MAKE them believe us. No matter what it takes."

To my surprise, she grinned, broadly, displaying her fangs, which, again, seemed longer than they had the day before. "Music to my ears, darling. I have an idea." She yanked my hand again, pulling me from the room. "Let's pay our caretakers a visit!"

* * *

"We're analyzing the Klaxosaur, I can't go letting you use our computers right now," Hachi deadpanned as we stood outside of his door. That went about as well as I expected it to.

"I'm telling you, your squad leader is still alive in there, and I can prove it," Zero Two argued, swinging her sucker to the other side of her mouth.

"You wouldn't even have access!" Nana retorted. "Go to the briefing room, we'll call you there for instructions soon."

The two slammed the door shut on us, and Zero Two and I glanced to each other.

"Plan B?" I asked.

She smiled and pinched my cheek. "Clever, darling."

Rounding a corner, we found an area just in the blind spot of the surveillance of the area. "You sure about this?" I asked.

"I've done my fair share of sneaking, darling. As a former Nine, I have access to all the systems."

She sounded confident, so I just nodded back. I shot a web line to the vent above, yanking down the grating. I pulled myself up into the vent and leaned down to puller her up as well. Crammed in the air duct, I webbed up the grate covering and replaced it.

"Lead the way, darling," Zero Two chirped. She seemed oddly excited to be crawling around a cramped air vent, but on a list of weird things about my partner, that ranked pretty lowly to be honest. "I'm enjoying the view, after all," she added with a purr as I crawled in front of her.

I'm pretty glad she couldn't see how red my face was at the comment.

Once over the office, we waited for Hachi and Nana to leave. As soon as they did, we jumped down from the ceiling, and for good measure, I webbed up the door in case they came back for any minute.

Zero Two's fingers tapped furiously against the interface, zooming in on the balloon-esque Klaxosaur, trying to find a signal. As I watched with bated breath, I wondered if maybe this was some sort of elaborate prank, or payback for me yelling at her earlier.

And that was when she picked up an audio signal.

"...ello? Hiro?" Ichigo's rang out.

Before anyone could reply, Zero Two broadcast the Audio to the briefing room, and through the camera to it, I could see the faces of all my squadmates light up.

"Sorry, it's not my darling." Zero Two answered in a sing-song voice. "Just me."

"You know what, right now I'm just glad to hear your voice," Ichigo sighed.

Zero Two was surprised, clearly not expecting that answer. "Well, I figured you were too bossy to let an explosion get in your way. I owed you one."

"Thanks...Zero Two."

Hachi patched into the audio from the briefing room. "Can you update us on the situation, Ichigo?"

Ichigo explained that there was only one opening to the Klaxosaur, towards the top. Other than that, there was no way to reach the core. "...so, I'll take care of it."

"What do you mean, you'll take care of it?" Hachi asked, and for the first time, he seemed alarmed.

"I'm switching into safe mode," Ichigo replied, ignoring the question. "I'm really glad I got to talk to you guys again."

Despite the protests of the squad, she ended the transmission, switching to safe mode. Like that, we could only get a weak GPS signal from the computer.

I stared at the screen. What did she mean?!

"Darling?"

I looked at Zero Two, who was smiling at me. "We should go get ready."

"Right." We had a job to do. I ripped the webs off of the door, and we left the normal way, much to Zero Two's dismay. Guess she liked air vents as much as I did.

* * *

"The priority is destroying the Klaxosaur," Hachi argued, "if it reaches the plantation, it will self-destruct, destroying the Plantation entirely."

"I can save her!" Goro argued, "You have to let me try!"

"Goro, there's no way we can get you to the top of the Klaxosaur." Nana replied, though she didn't seem too thrilled.

"Strelitzia could." I replied, as everyone turned to look at me. Feeling a bit off-put with the attention, I turned to Zero Two. "Right?"

Zero Two looked at the Klaxosaur on the screen. "Probably. We'd need a boost."

"We can do that!" Zorome volunteered, immediately. He and I made eye contact, and I think both of us could tell from our looks that we both wanted to make amends for getting Ichigo in this mess.

"Please, let us try!" Goro argued. "They can shove me through the vent hole, and if I don't make it in time, you can move ahead with destroying the Klaxosaur. If Delphinium is lost anyway, what's the point of me even being here?!"

Oh hey, that's probably what I sounded like before Piloting with Zero Two. We all looked to Nana and Hachi, pleadingly.

"...what do you think?" Hachi asked.

"If it doesn't interfere with Papa's orders, I don't see the harm," Nana admitted, quietly.

For a split second, Hachi smirked. "You haven't changed a bit." He snapped back up to us. "Go get ready. We deploy immediately."

As Zero Two and I left to get suited up, Goro stopped us as he grabbed her arm. "Zero Two...thank you."

Again, she seemed genuinely surprised at his reaction. "My pride wouldn't let me not pay our leader back."

"Still," Goro insisted, "you didn't have to do that. So, thank you."

She shrugged, but I could tell the gesture meant a lot to her, despite her cool exterior. "Well, I can't say I dislike this plan."

Goro ran off ahead, and she turned to look at me, noticing the goofy grin I was giving her. "What's that for, darling?"

"This is what I mean," I replied. "About becoming part of the team. I'm really glad you're here, Zero Two. Thank you for helping us give Ichigo a fighting chance."

A slow smile crawled across her face. As we walked towards the locker rooms, she reached over and grabbed my hand. "I'm glad I'm with you too, darling."

* * *

Our part of the mission was easy: holding onto Goro, Argenta gave us a boost to the top of the Klaxosaur. Yanking the vent open, we shoved Goro down into the suit, trying to give him enough momentum that his swim to Delphinium wasn't too bad.

From there, we had no visuals on the inside of the Klaxosaur.

We later found out that what happened next really only took about four minutes, but as we watched, it stretched on for eternity.

Finally, Delphinium sprung to life, impaling the core of the Klaxosaur. As it exploded the proper way, in a spray of bluish blood, Delphinium crashed to the ground, barely caught in time by Chlorophytum.

All of us began to depart our Franxx to check on our friends, climbing down them in a mad fury to make sure we hadn't lost either Ichigo or Goro, I saw in the distance as Goro collapsed into Ichigo's arms. I slowed down, to give them some space, but even from a distance, I could hear Goro quite clearly as he said: "I love you, Ichigo."

As she freaked out, I smiled.

If he could do it, I should probably get on that too.

As the rest of the squad went ahead of me, Zero Two stopped at my side. I turned and gave her my big, stupid smile again. After a while of watching them, I said "You did this."

She tilted her head at me, curiously. "What do you mean?"

I didn't have to answer, as Ichigo walked over, and to both of our surprised, bowed slightly to Zero Two. "Thank you, Zero Two."

"What's this all about?"

Ichigo straightened herself up and smiled. "For finding me. I'm glad you're part of the squad. I have your back too, okay."

Zero Two's eyes widened, as she looked around to all of us in confusion. Her eyes rest on mine, and she seemed to finally understand what I was so happy about. Her expression softened. "Go back to your bossy tone. I like that one a little better," she replied, teasingly.

In the end, I'm glad we had that win.

Because things just got harder.


	11. Rejection

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

"Oh! Let me read the note from Papa!" Zorome shouted, looking over our mound of gifts.

"No, I want to read the note from Papa!" Miku argued.

Zero Two walked down the stairs at the scene and approached me. "Good morning, Zero Two," I greeted.

"Darling, are...Zorome and Miku fighting again?" She asked. The shouting probably woke her up.

"You're doing really good remembering everyone's names," I smiled. "And yeah, they both want to read the note Papa sent along with the presents."

"Well, it makes me feel more human," she replied, but there was something forced about that answer. But before I had a chance to pry further, she asked, "presents?"

"Yeah, once a year Papa allows us to ask for a gift if we've done a good job Piloting our Franxx and listening to the Adults," I replied. After a pause, I furrowed my brow and realized _everyone_ should already know this. "You guys didn't do that with the Nines?"

She shook her head. "I've only really gotten a present twice in my life. What did you ask for, darling?"

I felt a pang of guilt in my chest as Zorome read Papa's note. Still, she asked, so I showed her the illustrated nature guide. "Well, I'm always fascinated with the wildlife around Mistilteinn, so I usually ask for a nature book about the various animals. I got birds this year."

Zero Two's lips twitched into a smile. "I see. Do you know of the jian?"

"Oh yeah! The bird with one wing." I grinned. "I've heard about it. They lean on each other, in pairs."

She nodded, beaming. "That's right! I think their way of life is profound."

Definitely not how I used to think about it. But now that I've been able to Pilot with Zero Two as a partner, I can kind of see what she means.

"NEEEEEEEEERDS," Zorome shouted at us.

I rolled my eyes at him as he gave a cocky grin. Scanning the room, everyone seemed pretty happy with their gifts. Ichigo fumbled around Goro as they showed each other their presents; seemed like they were still in an awkward predicament. Which was good, because I didn't need Ichigo bringing up her kiss with me on the beach.

"Ah man..." Zorome sighed.

"What's the matter?" Miku asked.

"There was another note...we need to go to the Garden for special testing." He griped.

Goro looked up, brow furrowed. "Today? We never have to do testing or Pilot or anything like that today."

Zero Two shrank back slightly, a look of anger on her face. "I hate testing..."

* * *

Upon arrival at the Garden, it became clear why she was mad; she was immediately led away by Nana and a group of guards. We were here because Zero Two needed to be tested; the rest of us coming along was simply showboating. With everyone around, I had no chance to sneak off and see what they were doing to make my partner so upset.

"Go to your testing and return here," Nana commanded from the doorway. "You are not to explore."

A wave of disappointment rose from my squad; we were excited to see our old home. Or they were. The second I set foot in this place, all I could hear was static. I didn't like being here.

Someone did something bad to us here.

I blinked. Us? I was getting weird flashes of my past - the missing parts - just being in this place.

Screw Nana. Some exploration was in order. My mood soured considerably as I followed behind the rest of Squad 13 - today was supposed to be a special day, but I guess you don't get a day off as a Parasite.

Even worse, as we walked through the Garden to get our own basic testing, we passed the Nines.

"Oh, Squad 13, how quaint running into the lot of you here!" Nine Alpha squealed, faux-giddiness dripping from his voice. "And where's the resident monster? Did they finally decide she was too dangerous for lowly humans?"

My eye twitched in annoyance. I didn't even have a chance to respond as Alpha rounded on me. "Oh, and it's her chew toy! I didn't get to meet you yet!"

"Chew Toy?" I echoed, incredulously. I could feel even Zorome scowl behind me at how he was acting.

"Hey, back off of him!" Ichigo snarled.

"And how are you holding up?" He rubbed his chin, ignoring the protest of our leader. "You're up to four rides now?"

"I'm great," I glanced back towards the girl I had webbed up at the beach. "I see you're all right side up after running into the spider guy."

"And where were you during that?" Nine Delta - the one I had hung up from a roof - scowled. "You're the only one who wasn't there."

"I'm afraid of heights," I replied, shrugging. "You guys disappeared too."

Alpha just laughed. "What a fascinating squad you are." He turned to Ichigo. "Maybe we should come stay with you some time, since you seem to take in monsters."

"The only space we have is in the attic," Ichigo fumed, "not befitting to elites like yourself."

The Nines began to walk away, but Delta paused by me, with a glare. "She'll be the death of you, human. How do you like them coconuts?"

I scowled at her, brows furrowed. "I hate them coconuts."

That sounded cooler in my head.

Goro shook his head as he walked next to me. "They must be good fighters for anyone to put up with them."

"Yeah," I agreed, uneasily, but I wasn't convinced. If Papa and the Sages approved of these kinds of people, what did it say about them behind closed doors?

* * *

After testing, which was all incredibly basic, I sat outside the lab as my squadmates were released. Once together, they began making their way towards the front of the Garden, but I spoke up. "Come on, let's look around a bit."

Ichigo looked back at me like I had just casually removed my face. "Nana told us not to wander off."

"It's not wandering if we know where we're going," I argued. "Come on, I want to see if I can find Naomi. Let her know what's been going on."

"It would be nice to see her again!" Kokoro agreed.

"Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing the old place," Ikuno admitted.

Soon, the squad was on my side, all muttering protests to our leader. I have successfully corrupted them.

Ichigo fidgeted uncomfortably. "Fine. But if we get in trouble, it's on you Hiro."

"Duly noted," I agreed, turning and making my way to the Children's quarters.

Together, we passed by a group of kids playing in the simulated outdoor area. As I looked at a small bridge, I felt the static in my mind flare up, and I looked at Mitsuru. He looked from the bridge and back to me with narrowed eyes.

Had something happened between us?

"You've got something." He muttered, pointing to his nose.

"Huh?" I answered, my voice sounding echoey even to myself. I tapped my finger to my nose and pulled it away, shocked by a trickle of blood; I had a nosebleed.

"Hiro, are you okay?" Futoshi asked, worried.

"Y-yeah, I'm just going to hit the bathroom and clean myself up," I assured them.

I did my best to walk in a straight line to the nearest restroom, but the world was revolving around me in chaos.

I had promised Mitsuru. What did I promise him? I don't know. I couldn't remember. But I remember agreeing to something there, and after that day, he seemed to really hate me.

Once I made it to the bathroom, I leaned against the sink, trying to center myself. My reflection met my gaze, and I saw the sweat and blood on my own (handsome) face. Turning the faucet on, I splashed myself, clearing some of the grime away.

Even as the room spun, I could hear a yell and a scream from outside. I staggered over to the window and looked below.

Zero Two was swatting off guards, still refusing testing. But as she did, a guard by Nana shot her with a tranquilizer dart. My partner collapsed to the ground, scowling as she was dragged away, struggling to stay awake.

"Don't cause me any trouble," Nana growled as Zero Two was dragged inside.

My Inner Alarm buzzed, and in my already shaky state it felt like a bomb going off in my head. My brain rattled against my skull and I staggered forward.

"Gotta...gotta do something," I mumbled. I clumsily kicked off my shoes and carried them to a ceiling vent, too exhausted to put on my mask and suit.

Crawling through the ducts, I'm not certain how I found my way as my eyes blurred, double vision obscuring my senses. But at some point, I found myself in the vent above whatever room they had Zero Two in.

Whatever her testing was, it was far more intense than anything I had ever seen. Chained down to a laboratory table, I saw Dr. Franxx walk in and observe as she kicked and thrashed.

He looked around at the Adults in the room. "Scalpel."

As he was handed one, two adults unbuttoned the bottom of Zero Two's jacket. Lifting it up, he made an incision below her navel, and watched blood trickle down as Zero Two screamed in pain.

As her screams pierced the air, I was overcome with a sense of dread and deja vu, my neck quivering as my head became heavy.

I had heard that scream before.

And then the world went black.

* * *

I was back in the Garden, and looking at my hands, I was a child again. I had just finished my special testing, and I had two small candies in my hand. I didn't really want them right away. I usually like to share one with my friends when I got back.

I looked around the halls, curious as always. I was looking for someone. Who?

Wait! I knew! When I had died, it was the little red-skinned girl. Did I know her? I must have! I was looking for her.

And when I found her, she was strapped to a table.

And the doctor was there. And when he gave the word, I heard something like a gunshot ring out, piercing the girl's hand. She howled in pain as blue blood splattered the window I watched behind.

It was the same scream.

* * *

My eyes jolted open in the air vent. I looked down to see the testing continuing, skin samples being peeled away from my partner, my Zero Two. I shook with rage as the world cleared. But how could I help?

As I thought about it, as soon as the testing began, they stopped.

"Draw a blood sample and let her be on her way." Dr. Franxx said. "We have all we need for now."

"Are you sure doctor?" Nana asked. He merely nodded in response and tapped his clipboard.

As the Adults began to clean her up, Zero Two mumbled something that made him, and myself, pause. "How many more?"

Dr. Franxx turned to look at her. "Hmm?"

"How many more Klaxosaurs do I need to kill to be human?" Zero Two asked, weakly.

Dr. Franxx looked to his clipboard and thought. "You've still quite a ways to go, Zero Two, before we can make you human."

Zero Two let out a pained cry of frustration, shattering my heart.

The words set my Inner Alarm aflame. He lied; all of it, her whole obsession of being human was just fabricated bullshit they had fed her.

I crawled down the vent, head reeling from anger and realization. I had seen Zero Two when I was younger. She had to be that girl. There had to be more.

But this isn't about me.

Zero Two has been fighting this whole time to become human. A goal that deep down, I knew could never happen. But why? How had she turned from that little red-skinned girl to the woman I saw below me.

I shook the thought. I wanted now, more than anything...just to do something nice for her. Because I don't care what she's made of or what sort of blood she has. Because...

She's a person and I care about her.

Step one: do something nice for Zero Two. Step two: delve into what happened to us as kids. If we had met before, maybe this could help us both?

Step three would just have to be crossed when we got there.

I was so close to answers. I knew. And it was connected to Zero Two. It had to be! She had horns just like the red skinned girl in my visions.

As I jumped down into the bathroom, I cleaned myself up once more and made my way towards the front, with the rest of Squad 13.

"There you are, Hiro," Goro said when he spotted me, sounding relieved.

"Where have you been?" Ichigo scolded.

"Here and there." I shrugged. "Just exploring the old place."

"Oh...well, we asked where Naomi was, but the Adults told us that no one ever comes back to the Garden." Ichigo's face fell as she told me.

I furrowed my brows. "But...they told me..."

I was interrupted as Nana and Zero Two walked through a nearby door. Zero Two herself looked incredibly cross, her large coat slung over her shoulders.

I was struck with an idea, and if I hadn't been so distracted, I would have noticed her horns were almost twice as big as they were when we had gotten here. Instead, I listened to Goro tell me about how they were starting injections on Children much, much younger than we had been.

* * *

Once home, I ran up to my room and took Naomi's trunk from under my bed.

"What are you doing, Hiro?" Goro asked, following me in.

"I felt bad that Zero Two was the only one who didn't get a present today," I answered, giving him half the reason, "I wanted to see if there was anything Naomi left me that maybe I could give her."

"That's pretty thoughtful of you," Goro grinned. "She looked pretty pissed after testing."

I nodded as my hands ran across something cold. I carefully pulled the object out of the bag...it was a beautifully crafted mirror made of a silvery metal.

Bingo.

"Just a tip, I saw her go into the woods," Goro advised as I stood up. "Good luck."

"Thanks man." I paused at the door. "For everything. You've always had my back."

Goro just laughed. "Don't make it sound so ominous. I don't think she's draining your life force. The others may not be convinced, but..."

"They'll come around," I replied, though I wasn't sure myself. "Be back soon."

I shivered as I stepped outside. The migration of the plant left us in the snow, and while I had always loved it, I wasn't built for the cold. Oh well.

Once out of eyesight of the house, I knew where to find her, and the proper path to websling there, though I did slow down as to not break the mirror.

I found her there, chewing on her thumbs anxiously. Was this about being human?

"Hey Zero Two," I greeted quietly.

She looked at me but said nothing. Thinking back to what happened to her at the Garden, I could totally get being upset. I gulped. Hopefully I could help her. I didn't want her to suffer.

I walked up to her and handed her the mirror. She looked down at it, bewilderment filling her face for a split second. "What's this?"

"Well," I began. I had admittedly practiced what I wanted to say to her. "I felt bad that you didn't get a present earlier. And I wanted to get you something pretty. But to be honest, I think you're the most beautiful thing here, so I got you a mirror."

And no stutter? I nailed it.

A smile twitched across her face. "Thank you, darling."

I frowned. Her voice sounded hollow.

"Hey," I began again, "It kind of seems like something of is upsetting you lately. And I don't know what it is, but is there any way I can help you? Do you want to talk about it?"

Her answer was more cold than I anticipated. "And why would I do that?"

Deep breath. "Because I'm your partner, Zero Two. And you've done a lot to help me in such a short time. I... I love you."

The words got her to turn and look at me, so I continued. "When I first met you, I thought you were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And as I got to know you, never giving up the fight, even when your partners died. Never backing down from anyone, Klaxosaur or human. Everything about you is beautiful."

She scoffed. "What's love?"

I felt my heart sink. This was not the reaction I was hoping for. "Zero Two?"

She unbuttoned part of her uniform, pulling it down to expose her left breast. "Is this what you mean? About when we first met?"

"What? No, I-"

She didn't let me finish, pushing me down to the ground, the soft snow breaking my fall. She forced herself on top of me and asked, "is this what you want? I can show you what's after kissing."

She leaned down and kiss me and began running her hands across my body. And while this was exciting, and plenty of parts of me wanted her to continue, her kiss felt cold and empty. A far cry from the way I had felt when she done it twice before.

It was wrong.

I yelped in pain and she brought a fang across my bottom lip, and I rolled over, pinning her to the ground. "Zero Two this isn't..."

But she was already looking bored with what I was doing. She looked over the lake, and sighed. "This is tedious. All I care about is killing more Klaxosaurs and becoming human."

I rolled off of her, feeling crushed. "But why?"

"For my darling from before." She turned and scowled at me. "You are nothing but fodder for me to achieve humanity.

I felt my heart shatter in my chest as the words pierced me like a bullet.

She didn't love me at all. Was this all a lie? Was I a pawn? Who was her original darling?

And as if the universe had just royally kicked my ass, an alarm blared out across the plantation. I heard Hachi's voice blare in the air. "All Franxx begin to preparations for combat."

Great. Now I had to fight this way.

* * *

It was a swarm of Mojo and Conrad class Klaxosaurs. Not a huge threat, but with our Plantation so close to the garden, it was definitely unusual. Nana was under the impression that the monsters were never seen this far out.

Worse was that despite being able to maintain sync with my partner, she wasn't listening to our leader at all. Even as Ichigo barked orders, Zero Two was yanking control from me, plowing through Klaxosaurs.

For the missions, Hachi ordered Futoshi and Mitsuru to switch partners to see if their numbers improved. And while Genesta seemed to be fine, Chlorophytum was struggling a bit. In Strelizia's rage, she was plowing through a group of Conrad class, but was about to crash into Kokoro and Mitsuru.

"That's ENOUGH!" I shouted, giving my controls a hard tug. We tumbled to the ground, off balance. But, in my own frustration I managed to spring Strelizia back to its feet and impaling three Klaxosaurs.

"Zero Two, you need to stop," I groaned.

"No!" She choked. She was fighting back tears, but yelled, "I won't stop until THEY'RE ALL DEAD. NONE OF IT MATTERS!"

We were thrown off sync as Strelizia collapsed into Stampede mode. Immediately, Ichigo yelled out over the coms. "Hiro, get out of there! She'll devour you if you don't stop. SHE'LL EAT YOU ALIVE!"

And perhaps I would have listened, but the console on the back of Zero Two's head did something that froze me in place. As my numbers dropped to zero, hers continued to skyrocket, well beyond 100. Without warning, the cockpit filled with alarms and buzzers. But I couldn't hear them. Looking down at my partner, some sort of red specter rose from her body.

It looked just like Zero Two. "That's right," I heard her voice say, voice full of resignation, "I will drain you until there is nothing left. Until I find my darling again."

Her hands clasped around my throat, and my Inner Alarm filled my head, along with the static of remembrance. Again, the world revolved and blurred, my entire head feeling fried as if struck with lightning.

My eyes widened.

I.

Remembered.

Everything.


	12. Answers

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

The world seemed monochromatic, but I recognized the room I was in.

I had broken into this room, all those years ago. Next to me, the little red-skinned, horned girl sat on the floor.

A little Zero Two.

How could I have forgotten this? All the times they sent me to the Garden for special testing.

I blinked, and the room was different, though Zero Two was still there, small and feral looking. I scanned the room - and immediately thought Ichigo would have loved it. It was filled with stuffed toys and dolls, though none of them looked touched. Zero Two herself was chained to the wall, looking devoid of any thought or will to move. She had been like this for a long time to be this broken.

Her voice echoed in my head, though I didn't see her - the current her - anywhere. "Back then, all I ever wondered was who I was."

The door slid open to this room behind me, and a shapeless blob walked in, carrying a tray. Setting the tray down, Zero Two finally stirred to life, springing forward to devour the food. The blob pet her head affectionately before leaving.

"She was the closest thing I ever had to what one would call a mother."

That word itself seemed only vaguely familiar to me from the pamphlet I had "borrowed" from Kokoro. But I knew from context that this was the only person to really take care of Zero Two and she couldn't even remember what the woman looked like.

"One day, she brought me something different...and I never saw her again."

The room shifted slightly; and it was clear time had passed. Zero Two was slightly taller, and all the unused toys were caked in a layer of dust. The blob of a woman entered, carrying something under her arm. Setting it down for the tiny Zero Two, I saw it was a picture book.

I'd seen that before! Zero Two opened the book, marveling at the beautiful pictures within.

"After seeing the book, I believed that the outside world must have been filled with beautiful things."

The outside world. I... I wanted to know about the outside world too!

I remembered myself, back at the Garden, and the room changed. I could see a little version of myself talking to Ichigo. This was the day I named her!

I named people because I just wanted to be like the people I would read about in books. I truly believed that outside of these cold walls, the world was nothing like Garden. A world full of heroes...

So, I named myself Hiro. Looking back, that was not very creative, was it? I didn't really care about who I was...I guess I was different from Zero Two in that regard. All I cared about was who I could _be_ if I got out of here.

Ichigo had called everyone over so I could name them.

I smiled as I watched my younger self carefully name the Children.

But...then I heard names I had all but forgotten. Fuuka. Junpei. Steve. All Parasites who had gone without a trace as time went on.

"What happened to Cloud and Chrono?" My younger self asked one of the adults, nearing tears.

"It's time for testing," was the cold response I got. I could see the heartbreak on my childlike face. All I wanted was answers.

This was...this was before my mutation. I remembered that. Before I changed, they took me to the Garden labs almost daily. They would hook me to electrodes, poke and prod me, take my blood...but why? They told me all the time I was different. Special. But what was special about me?

If I was a good boy and didn't ask them too many questions, they would give me two pieces of fruit candy. Even as a kid I never really understood, but I knew the concept of giving me sweets to shut me up rubbed me the wrong way.

As I watched my younger self play with the other kids, I saw him give a name to Mitsuru.

Wait! Mitsuru?! Didn't he get taken to the Garden that one time for an injection?

Shit. Shit, he did. What did he say to me?

At the thought, the room changed to the young Mitsuru and me, standing on that bridge before they took him away.

"Where are you going?!" I had asked.

"They're...they're going to give me a parasite injection," Mitsuru responded.

Even as these projections said it, the memory became more and more clear in my head. That injection was one they gave to Children with bad testing scores. It worked sometimes, but there was something like an 85% mortality rate.

"Will you come back?" I had asked. As my younger self asked, I found myself mouthing the words.

"Maybe...but...Hiro, promise me something."

"What's that?"

"If I come back, I want to Pilot with you someday!" Mitsuru, always a weaker kid, was fired up. "I want to Pilot a Franxx with you!"

As my younger self promised, I frowned. Oh, how naive we were, thinking it would be that easy.

I had forgotten all about this conversation. Was this why he started to hate me? Throw things at me?

How could I have forgotten?

I was so close. I concentrated on my own testing. It had been the next day, hadn't it?

The world formed around me to give me what I sought out: When I first saw Zero Two. I was walking into my own tests when a sound distracted me. A girl, a red-skinned girl with horns was being dragged into a different testing room. And I remembered thinking, in a world of sterile grays and whites, this creature was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I wanted to see more, which is probably why when I was done with my own testing that day, I went over to her own room, and looked through the window.

I didn't recognize Dr. Franxx at the time, but I knew now he was the one experimenting on her. I looked into the lab, with my younger self, as this poor girl was strapped down to an operating table. Without warning, a gunshot rang out, piercing her entire hand, and the young Zero Two screamed out in pain.

The same scream I heard earlier.

"You have to stop!" My younger self screamed and was immediately taken away by Adults. I even began to tear up, as the doctor himself began ranting and raving how extraordinary these test results were.

I remembered. I wanted nothing more than to help this girl. It became my mission. It took me a few tries before I saw her on my walks back to the Nursery.

It had been a snowstorm when I saw her up in the window. In my determination, I had climbed a tree to see her. And looking into her window, as her small frame curled up around a picture book, I had been awestruck.

I would save this girl, even if it killed me. I watched my younger self climb down the tree and find a lantern on the ground.

Watching these forgotten memories unfold, I felt like my head was splitting open, but I didn't want to stop. This is what I had been fighting to figure out for years of my life.

My younger self yelled for Zero Two to move away from the window, and he chucked the lantern through, glass shattering in the snow.

Of course! That's why I remembered that window later!

As he - or I - reached for her, the branch gave way, and we both fell to the ground. I winced watching the two small frames hit the snowy surface.

Zero Two was up first, looking around, and pouncing on a family of field mice. My younger self woke up just in time to see her try to eat one, and I laughed as he scolded her.

Zero Two had chomped down on my hand all that time ago, and I remembered petting her to get her to let me go. As younger Hiro scolded her, she took on a remorseful, and tearful look, stopping the younger me in his tracks.

Even back then she had me wrapped around her finger. Yeesh.

"You don't understand me, do you?" Little Hiro asked.

I watched, a bit awestruck, as my younger self wrapped her feet and began to lead her away from the Garden.

"And that creature you tried to eat is a, 'mouse,'" Little me told her, sounding a bit self-important.

"Mowz!" Zero Two chirped back, happily.

D'aw.

"Do you have a name I can call you?" The tiny hero asked.

"Nom?"

"Hmm...maybe...Oni? No, that's dumb. Zero Two, maybe?" He suggested. "No, that's just taking a number off."

"Eo-Oooh!" Zero Two cooed back. "Eo-OoOoH!"

"Aw man. Guess you like that one..."

My head began to spin as I watched. I HAD named her? It was me? And she kept it. My heart swelled a bit. She rejected Papa's name for her in favor of this little conversation. I had meant that much to her?

I followed the two younger versions of us as they ran through the snow, the memories flooding back to me as they unfolded before my eyes.

"This is a snowman!" I had taught her as I put one tiny snow pile on top of another.

"Show Main!" She giggled.

Despite the pain in my frontal lobe, I smiled as I watched the two, walking hand in hand. Why had I forgotten this? This looked like the greatest day I had ever had. A beacon of hope in a dull void.

"Look Zero Two, a stream!"

"Sweam!" She yelled, chasing after me. The two children marveled over a few fish.

Later on, the two sat beside a tree, their little feet cold and tired from the long walk. I watched as little Hiro unwrapped a fruit candy and held it out for Zero Two. "It's food! Say, 'ahhhh!'"

My head burned as I watched him pop the candy into her mouth, and her utter and pure delight of such a sweet thing. I had taught her that. I had taught her the entire gesture of romantic feeding, and then forgotten it like a dumbass.

As the two children finished the candy, I felt something burn in my wrists. What was happening? I scratched at them, feverently, not taking my eyes off my memories.

Little Zero Two pulled out her picture book and showed it to my younger self. "Oh? Do you want to share it?"

Little Hiro took the book in his hands. "The Beast and the Prince? I've never seen a book like this before."

I could tell that I had wanted to read the book, but there was an unwelcome voice coming from beside some other trees. My memories froze up as APE guards could be heard from around the tree. "They couldn't have gone far. Find them."

I looked down. I didn't realize as a kid, but we left very obvious tracks in the snow - of course they found us.

"What of code 016?"

"Priority is code 002. If he puts up a fight, kill him."

I heard the words, which means I had heard them as a kid too. To my younger self's credit, he held tightly on to the younger Zero Two, who was trembling in fear. "Don't worry," he assured her, "No matter what happens. I'll protect you."

I felt a little proud as I watched Zero Two relax in the embrace. I was a pretty ballsy kid, apparently.

When the coast was clear, Little Hiro and Little Zero Two took off running, and I followed, wishing I could cover up their tracks. But I was here as a viewer, not some kind of time traveler.

They went further into the trees, stopping under a big tree. The burning in my wrists became more pronounced. As the two children heaved to catch their breath, my younger version suggested, "let me read you some of that book?"

I realized, in my own remembrance, I had been nervous that our time was running out. I wanted to comfort her, and myself.

Little Hiro took out the book and read, Zero Two captivated all the while. "The Beast and the Prince..."

"There was once a beautiful beast princess. Beckoned by the light of the moon, she wandered into a kingdom of humans..."

I remembered how the story went as my younger voice read it aloud. The beast fell in love with a human prince, but being a monster with black wings, she could not be with him. Seeking the help of a witch, she tore her wings off in an effort to be with her beloved.

As I heard the story, I stared at the small Zero Two. All this time...had she been looking for me? Did she think me her prince? I'm just a big doofus who can hang off the ceiling.

"This story is so sad..." Little Me lamented. "Why can't they get married, just because she's not human?"

"Mawwied?" Zero Two squawked.

"Yeah, married," the young me replied. "When two people promise to be together and love each other. Forever. Look, we should get going."

As the memory became clearer in my mind, I remembered feeling worried. I didn't want to stay put too long. I wanted to get out of there. At the time, I truly believed if I could just get Zero Two far enough away from the Garden, her and I would be okay. We could be just the two of us, together.

But we were just a couple of kids.

As the two went to leave, little Zero Two tripped and fell, skinning her knee.

My wrists began to burn and itch again, and I scratched them, absentmindedly.

Uh oh! Are you hurt?" Little Hiro asked. "Oh no… you're bleeding!"

Kneeling on the ground, my younger self collapsed on the ground, looking for something to wrap her wound, but there was nothing...

Little Hiro looked up at Zero Two and looked guilty. "Just bear with it, okay? I read somewhere animals lick their wounds."

My eyes widened as he leaned down and began to lick the wound of Zero Two. The blue blood from her knee against my younger self's tongue.

I couldn't take the burning in my wrists anymore, coupled with a burst within my own mind. My hands lunged forward and exploded in webbing, catching the tree in my memory, the spider webs glistening in the slow. I knew what this meant.

This.

This is why I was the way I was. Whatever was in Zero Two's blood, be it the Klaxosaur blood or whatever sick concoctions the doctor had injected her with, or both...changed me.

She had given me the strength to fight back before she even knew.

Zero Two looked from her picture book to my younger self, realizing they were positioned similarly to the prince and the beast when they were discussing marriage. "Mawwied?"

Little Hiro looked up, stunned. "Huh?"

"Mawwy?" Zero Two asked again, pointing from my younger self to her, and back. "Mawwied."

Little Hiro laughed, and I reached up to my cheeks. I was crying. Why was I crying?

Oh right...

Because I remember what happens next.

"Of course I'll marry you," I had agreed, "As soon as we get out of here. I want to be with you forever. That way, I can always be...your darling."

I let out a sob, and younger Zero Two did the same. Her's however, was happy. She lunged forward and cried, holding my younger self, repeating, "Dah-ling, Dah-ling."

"Hey, are you okay?" Little Hiro laughed. "Look, we're under a mistletoe!"

I watched their two faces look up and marvel at the tree. I looked up too, watching the snowflakes fall through the spider webs I had shot up into the tree. It looked so beautiful. Maybe one day...one day I could come back.

But I looked down, and just as I remembered, my younger self and Zero Two were surrounded by soldiers. As my younger self charged forward to protect her, he was smacked in the head with the butt of a rifle, and I watched my smaller version crumple to the ground.

"Dah-ling!" Zero Two screamed, sobbing as she was grabbed by another soldier. "DAHLING!"

I cried as I watched the rest unfold, almost in fast motion. We were brought back to the lab, and Dr. Franxx hooked the two of us up to a machine.

"Erase their memories," he advised a faceless Adult, sternly. "They can never remember this day. A shame...016 is tainted now."

"Should we dispose of him?"

"No… I want to see how he turns out."

* * *

My eyes snapped open in the cockpit of Strelizia. Despite the red specter of Zero Two choking me, I felt a second wind kick in me, pushing out the alarms and shouts I was hearing over the comm link.

I reached up and pulled the hands off my throat, her specter disappearing as I resisted. I gasped; even breathing hurt and I could tell my throat was bruised.

"Hey," I choked out.

Zero Two twitched; she hadn't expected me to live.

"It was you, wasn't it?" I asked.

She tensed up, so I continued. "The girl...with the picture book? All those years ago?"

Zero Two's head slowly spun around to face me, and this time she wore an expression I had never seen on her face before. Horror, regret, and realization all seemed to hit her at the same time as her widened eyes met mine.

Slowly, a few tears slipped down Zero Two's face. "Were you...my darling from back then?"

I nodded, weakly.

"Then what..." she fought back a sob, seeing me in the state I was in. "What have I been doing?"

I leaned back in the chair. That second wind had all but left me. "...sorry I let you down."

And I passed out.


	13. Poor Communication Skills

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

Also, fair warning: This is the sad chapter. Be ready for the sad.

* * *

My eyes fluttered open and I recognized I was in the medical bay.

My mind immediately raced to what happened before I collapsed; the memories, and the look on my partner's face when she realized what she had done. I had so much… so much I wanted to say to Zero Two. But all I managed to do before passing out was apologize.

I had promised as a kid to protect her. But I failed. And she managed to remember that day, whereas I… I had forgotten. Machines or not, she managed to remember her original darling, which was me, ironically enough. Had she known all along? Suspected?

Or… was I just meant to be fodder?

But the way she looked at me when I said those words… it was a look of regret.

I needed to make this right, I needed answers. I needed to just talk to her. No games, no bullshit, just talk.

I sat up and immediately realized it still hurt to breathe. I lightly tapped my fingers to my throat and winced - bruised. How hard had I been choked?

"Guys, Hiro is awake!"

I looked up, seeing Zorome make the announcement to the squad. At once, my teammates flocked into the room, talking all at once.

"How are you feeling, Hiro?" Ichigo asked, once the room had calmed a bit.

I felt a little apprehensive at the question. While Zero Two and I might have had a big mental epiphany, I'm pretty sure the only thing my friends heard was Zero Two saying she'd devour my entire soul until there was nothing left of me. This might rub them the wrong way.

"I'm okay," I advised, trying my best to sound like my windpipe wasn't recovering from ghost-crushing, and explained, "A lot of crazy stuff happened in the cockpit that I don't think you guys heard. I really need to talk to Zero Two. Is she around?"

As I figured, everyone looked to each other uneasily. "Hiro… she's been recalled to go work with the Nines," Futoshi answered me, nervous.

"What?!" I exclaimed. That was far worse than I could have anticipated. "They said she'd be my partner until I died! I didn't die! I just took a nap! Nap is not dead!"

Everyone looked away and I became more acutely aware of the darkened skin around my neck. Still, no one wanted to answer me.

I knew they were just looking out for me. This was the second time I'd come close to death just from Piloting with Zero Two, and she sounded particularly uncaring this last time. But I don't think, even with all the time in the world, I could sit here and explain she was some sort of test subject who's being emotionally played by Papa. First, because it was based on memories from a kid I had forgotten until yesterday, and second, I'm pretty sure after what I saw yesterday that we're all getting played.

Why else would they be creating little red children and then _shooting_ them as a test?

"When is she leaving?" I asked, unable to keep the pleading from my voice. "There's things I need to say to her."

"Get some rest Hiro, you're not healed yet. We can talk about that later," Ichigo replied, not meeting my eyes. "I'll come back to visit you later."

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. Even with my heightened durability, just having this conversation was taking a lot out of me. As much as I wanted to stay sitting, I found myself slowly slipping backwards. As my back hit the pillow I looked at the ceiling. "I'm just going to rest my eyes for a minute and then I need to talk to her."

As my squadmates began to shuffle out of the room, I remembered something though. "Hey, Mitsuru, wait."

He paused, looking very uneasy as the rest of the squad. "What do you want?"

I swallowed, which still hurt like hell, and sighed. "I remembered something when I was… talking with Zero Two. Back when we were kids, I promised I'd ride with you, didn't I? And then, like an asshole, I forgot."

Not like it was my fault, you know, getting hit in the head with a gun and then hooked up to a machine, but I'm not one to make excuses.

"Don't worry about it," Mitsuru shrugged. "I'd honestly forgotten the whole thing. Go to sleep, Hiro."

He claimed those things as he left the room but the smile on his face told me otherwise.

I fell asleep. But it was an uneasy sleep for sure; I had another one of those dreams that seemed linked to Zero Two. It was like an out of body experience and I was seeing the world through her eyes. The dream was the same as before, with dozens of dead, bloody Stamens trying to claw at her from a hole on the floor. Hands were raised in front of my eyes to defend myself, and from the claws, I could tell I was seeing a dream through Zero Two's eyes once again.

Then, like before, my own dead body was pushed through the hole, looking up at Zero Two. Despite my empty eye sockets there was a look on my face reminiscent of betrayal. I spoke to Zero Two but I had the voice of my younger, smaller self.

"I thought I was your darling?"

Zero Two let an unhinged shriek loose and threw something at the nightmarish vision - I recognized it as the mirror I had given her.

My eyes flew open at the sound of glass shattering and I bolted upright in my bed.

I was convinced that I had seen her dream. Were we linked psychically somehow? It was when she choked me in Strelizia that I was able to see my past.

I needed to see her. I needed -

"Hiro?"

Ah damn it. Ichigo pushed the door open to my room. "Are you okay? I thought I heard you yell?"

"Just warming up the throat muscles," I lied. Though, truth be told, I was feeling a lot better.

She sat down next to me and began slicing up an apple. "You should eat something. Keep your strength up so you can keep getting better."

My leg twitched impatiently. I needed to get out of here and fast. Still as she handed me the apple slice, I chuckled a bit. "You still cut them like bunnies, don't you?"

"Sh-shut up, Hiro!" She scowled, and immediately cut her finger while distracted. "AH!"

Mechanically, I reached over to my bedside stand and began to clean her wound and bandage it, without even stopping to think about it for a moment. Looking out for my squad had become so ingrained with who I was, I don't think anything in the world would get me to stop.

As much as I love Zero Two, this is my family and I will always be there for them.

I was almost done with the patch-up job and saw how red Ichigo had turned.

Uh oh. She's not going to try and kiss me again, is she? That's definitely not what I needed on my plate right now. "Are you sure you're not the one who should be in here?" I joked, trying to ease some of the tension.

She had the opposite reaction, but then again, humor was never Ichigo's strong point. "We were all really worried about you, Hiro."

"I… I know." I answered, looking down at my own feet. "It's hard to explain what happened in Strelizia. Something… weird happened after I went offline for a little bit."

"What was it?" She asked.

I stared her in the eyes. Ichigo was like my sister, right? Could I trust her with this? It might be the only way they'll let me talk to Zero Two.

I inhaled a deep breath to tell her but a knock came at the door, interrupting the moment. Miku poked her head in the door. "Ichigo? Goro says he needs you back at the house… like now."

Ichigo sighed and stood up to leave. "Let's put a pin in this for later, Hiro. This is for the best. Trust me."

I watched her leave and looked down at my feet, frustrated. I wasn't tired anymore, in fact, I was more restless than ever. Maybe I could follow them. Pulling the IV machine alongside me, I opened the door to my room, but stopped in my tracks as I saw Miku still leaning beside the door.

We exchanged awkward eye contact. "This isn't the bathroom," I joked, knowing I didn't have a good excuse to be out here.

Miku gave me a sad smile, seeing through my ruse. "Ichigo really cares about you, Hiro. Please don't make her worry."

I frowned and retreated back into the room. That could have gone better.

I guess I didn't have a choice, my eyes traveling over to a vent grate in the ceiling.

No hospital room could hold Spider-Man.

Carefully, I pulled the IV tubes from my arms and turned off the machines. Rummaging through my clothes, I found my suit and mask, and grabbed my things. I pulled the vent grate down from the ceiling, catching it before it hit the floor so it didn't make much any noise, and pulled myself up.

"Sorry guys," I whispered, "I'll explain later."

I wasn't too familiar with the vent system in this part of the plantation, having not been put in the medical bay too many times. After awhile, I was able to find my way to the hangar, and began climbing through until I reached the exit; our home in Mistilteinn in sight. Keeping low and ducking into the trees, I changed back into my uniform and removed my mask before approaching the house - this had taken far longer than I had been hoping it would.

I opened the front door cautiously. "Hello? Guys? H… holy… crap."

There had been a struggle in here that had yet to be cleaned up by our caretakers. Broken potted plants and dirt scattered the carpet, and there was an indentation on the wall where someone had been thrown into it. "What happened?"

The destruction seemed to follow a path and I followed a series of scratch marks and dents in the wall up to Zero Two's room. Gulping, I gently opened the door and gasped as it swung open.

The walls of her room were covered, completely, in scratch marks. The walls were gouged and torn, and her belongings were scattered across the floor. In the center of the room, just where it had been in the dream, was the mirror I had given to her, shattered in pieces.

My Inner Alarm, which had been silent since I remembered my past, began to scream within my brain, sending my skull reverberating. I dropped to my knees at how violent it became.

I needed to get back to my room. Now.

Turning on my heel, I ran out of Zero Two's room, jumping down the entire staircase, turning the hall, jumping the main floor staircase, and kicked open the door to the house. Shooting my webs, I flung myself towards the plantation as fast as I could, not bothering with my suit. Maybe I could make it back before they got there.

I clambered through the vent as fast a I could without making noise, which slowed me considerably.

I neared my hospital room and paused as I heard a loud SMACK and yelling voices.

Familiar voices.

I finally made my way over my room as it began to get dark. My mouth hung open in horror as I looked through the grate; my squadmates were all knocked unconscious, strewn about the room. Zero Two, standing the middle of the room, held a limp and lifeless Ichigo in her hands.

I dropped from the ceiling just as Zero Two reared her hand back to slash my leader across the face, and was just in time to shoot a web and catch her hand.

At the resistance, Zero Two paused and dropped Ichigo to the ground like a piece of trash. "Darling… there you are..."

"Zero Two..." The words locked up in my throat as I saw my bloodied friends all around me. "What… what did you do?!"

Zero Two's horns and eyes seemed to glow red, and whether it was a trick of the light or her own abilities from Klaxosaur blood I would never know. But her horns were definitely twice the size they had been yesterday. She slowly tilted her head to the side. "Don't you see, darling? They were in our way. Now we can be together."

My hands trembled and I felt the tears fly to my eyes in a mixture of sadness and rage. "Why would I do anything with you after _this?_ " I gestured my hands across the room to my fallen friends.

Zero Two took a step back, as if my words themselves pushed her away. "Darling...?"

"Get out."

"What...?"

"GET OUT!" I barked. "Get out! Get away from my friends, you.. .you monster!"

I was expecting her to fight, yell at me, something. Instead, I saw a single tear slide down her cheek, and she replied, barely audibly, "Okay d… Hiro."

She walked away from the room and I stood there, staring at the open door for a full minute. Finally, when I was confident she was gone, I staggered backwards against the wall, and slid down into a seated position. I buried my face in my palms and began to sob.

How… how had this all gone so wrong?

I wiped my eyes and stood up as quickly as I had fallen. No. I had to take care of my friends right now.

* * *

Thankfully, all the wounds my friends had suffered were superficial and minor; her going to claw Ichigo was only due to some heated words they had exchanged moments before the leader had passed out. We were all released back to the house, except for me. I was asked to stay for some last minute observations after my breakout.

All for the best, I supposed. I stared up at the ceiling, all night. It was a strange feeling filling me; I wanted to cry, maybe even desired to, but I just felt empty.

As upset as I was, and I truly believed I had every right to be, I had crossed a line too. I had prided myself, promised her, I would never look at her like a monster, that I would always be there when others failed. But in my rage, I had thrown that aside.

Could I really let things end like this? Meeting her as kids, and meeting her now… both times I felt ready to give up. On life, on my friends, and myself. Both times meeting her gave me the power to shape my own fate.

And apparently, I had given her the same resolve, even after our minds were wiped. She was pushing through, through death and rejection to find me, for years.

It hit me. That's why we were different. I always had the other Children to fall back on, and take care of. Even if I loved her as a kid, I still had other people who loved me and had taken care of me.

Everyone rejected Zero Two as nothing more than a monster.

And she in turn rejected everyone who wasn't me - her first darling.

"Fuck!" I shouted to the ceiling, in the darkness. "FUCK!"

I sat up.

Right now, the Plantation was heading for our next mission. A big one, too, from the sounds of what Nana had told Ichigo at the Garden.

Zero Two would be going back to the Nines and I would be back at Square One.

"I fucked up," I groaned, holding my head in my hands.

I had to make this right. Zero Two didn't understand and the only chance I had was to get her to listen to me.

I got dressed as the sunlight hit my room and bottled out of the door; the vents were good for swinging, the direct approach was best for speed. Especially on foot; my powers meant I was the fastest of my squad.

The sunlight blared against my eyes as I hit the outdoor area and charged towards Mistilteinn. My heart leapt to my throat as I saw the ship had landed there; her transport. It was behind the house, ready to take her away.

"No!" I panted, picking up the pace. Despite being mostly healed, my throat still burned with the after effects of what had happened to me.

My legs were on fire too as I flew through the grass and I began using my webslinging the second I was under the canopy of leaves. I had to stop her! I had to!

As I emerged from the wooded area, I was just in time to see her leaving the house, in full uniform flanked by guards. Her horns were now protruding a good 15 centimeters off her head and she walked briskly, looking only at her feet as she carried her bags into the transport.

"Zero Two," I yelled, despite my hoarse voice. "Zero Two!"

She paused at the sound of my voice, but only looked at her feet and kept moving forward. The door closed behind her, and as the cold metallic panel slid shut, I felt my heart sink.

She was gone. I had failed to get her to stay. I'm not sure how long I stood there but I wept silently, staring off where her ship had long since disappeared. At one point, Ichigo came beside me and held my hand. A long time must have passed, because at some point she led me inside, telling me Papa had a mission for us at something called the Grand Crevasse tomorrow oh, and I would need my strength.

But what could I need it for? My wings had gone. And it was all my fault.


	14. Double Chapter: Life After Papa

**Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing**

 **I would also like to apologize to those who were dissatisfied by how closely the last few chapters have followed canon. Please see my afterward for more on that.**

* * *

If the mission at the Grand Crevasse had been held a week before I would have thought this was the coolest thing we had ever been asked to do.

The Crevasse itself was apparently a stronghold for the Klaxosaurs, something of a base. This immediately seemed suspicious to me; Papa always presented these beasts as nothing more than savage monsters that were drawn to magma energy. How could monsters that were strictly feral have a base? Strategize?

As it stood now, it was hard to be excited. I was in this mission solely as an observer. With my partner gone, I would be watching my squad assist in Squad 26 and the Nines mission to clear out the Crevasse. This would finally give Papa the upper hand in the war. Whatever that meant.

I stared as Hachi went over his plans for the battle with my squad, not really absorbing much of the details. Perhaps seeing my empty gaze, Ichigo grabbed my hand, and held it briefly before the group went to suit up.

I met with them in the hangar tunnel after they were done preparing; it only felt right to see them off before such a big fight. I guess my glum attitude was written all over my face.

"Hey, don't look so down, Hiro," Goro said, giving me a light punch in the shoulder.

"Yeah, we've come a long way!" Zorome crowed, proudly. "We got this!"

"That's right," Ichigo beamed. "We're going to clear out the Grand Crevasse, and then, when we get back, I'll teach you how to Pilot a Franxx from the ground up."

I gave them a hollow smile. I appreciated their efforts, truly, but it was hard to be excited. "Just come back to me safe, guys."

They all gave me cheesy smiles and left for their Franxx, and I let the forced smile fall.

As I watched them deploy from the briefing room, I saw Stelizia as well, in stampede mode. She must not have chosen a Stamen to ride with today and I felt the pain in my chest rekindle.

Alone again, like she always claimed to be.

Dr. Franxx entered the room and saw the Franxx approach the Klaxosaur base. "Ah… that hellcat. Always a problem. So beautiful though. Almost makes you forget she's a monster."

"She's not..." I seethed, but I stopped at his knowing gaze.

What right did I have to dispute that now?

I walked away, unnoticed by Nana and Hachi, as they focused on the mission. I couldn't watch this right now.

As I trudged towards Mistilteinn, I couldn't bring myself to web swing either. I was in full brooding mode; it was the return of Max Brooding. Walking through the front door, I frowned. Most of the debris had been cleared but the walls still needed patching.

Robotically, I found my feet carrying me to Zero Two's room. Pushing the door open, it was roughly untouched from yesterday.

I don't know why I brought myself here and I was certainly heartbroken at the sight, but my eyes drifted to a glint of light on the floor, jarring me out my moping.

The mirror. She left it here. I crouched to examine it and froze in place.

She… she had tried her best to glue it back together. She could have only done that after I called her a monster.

Wait. When she didn't look at me yesterday, it wasn't because she was mad. Did she… feel like me? Unworthy of the other? Ashamed?

"No," I uttered, grabbing the sides of my head. "NononononoNONO!"

I sprang to my feet. "What the hell am I doing here?!"

Time to make good on my promise.

As my feet flew through the house, I threw my clothes haphazardly along the halls, using my portable suit. Pulling myself through the trees, I felt like a man possessed, moving faster than I ever had before.

As I reached the briefing room again, I looked at the screen. The fighting had spilled into the city. Nana looked over her shoulder at me and frowned. "We need you to stay here, Hiro. We can't guarantee your safety out there."

My jaw dropped in horror when I realized what she meant; Plantation 26 had been destroyed and Papa gave the order for them to take out a massive Klaxosaur… in a suicide bombing.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I screamed, looking expectantly at Nana and Hachi, and my blood boiled further as they refused to look at me when they answered.

"It was the best course of action," Hachi muttered, though his expression displayed some unease.

Yeah, no, I wasn't going to sit here and wait for that to happen to my friends, or let Zero Two do this alone.

I turned on my heel and fled, ignoring as Nana yelled after me.

As I ran through the halls, I webbed up the cameras ahead and pulled the mask from my back pocket.

I remembered the way Zero Two took me to see the city, including where I needed to bypass an S-Class security door. But doors were no match for Spider-Man! I jumped through a ceiling grate above and went over the door, knocking the grate on the other side down to keep running.

As I emerged on the balcony Zero Two had taken me to all those days ago, the city seemed much more dull and gray than I remembered. The yellow and orange sheens extinguished as Klaxosaurs pushed back against my squad. But in the distance, atop amount of felled Klaxosaurs and debris, sat Strelizia.

"Halt!" I heard from behind me, in tandem with my Inner Alarm buzzing.

I whipped around to see a plethora of guards with guns trained on me. I must have missed a camera, or they were just expecting me.

"We have you surrounded," the lead guard growled. "Surrender."

I raised my hands slowly. "Too bad I don't have any tricks up my sleeve."

As one approached me cautiously, I backflipped off the side of the building, my Inner Alarm guiding my body as I twisted away from flying bullets. "Just web shooters."

Twisting in mid air, I shot a web to a nearby building and swung over the city.

This feeling was new. Incredible. At the peak of my swing, I let go, my body sailing aerodynamically past the tops of the skyscrapers, eyes scanning the streets below as Conrad-Class Klaxosaurs stormed about.

My heart pounded, adrenaline coursing within me. This was flight. This was what I was capable of, this was my power. And it was all because I met Zero Two all those years ago. Now, it was my turn to return the favor.

I grinned under my mask as I shot a web line to the corner of the next building, pulling myself towards, and springing myself forward with my powerful leg muscles.

As I swung through the city, Klaxosaurs began to take notice of me as I approached where my squad's Franxx were fighting. The Alarm blared in my head as the buildings around me began to crumble.

Ahead of me, the top of a build snapped off, and headed for a window where an Adult watched helplessly.

"Damn it," I cursed.

I snapped to the window of the building and shot webs in all directions. The net caught (most of) the chunk of building and I kicked it down so it crushed one of the Klaxosaurs.

But debris came through and cut my cheek, leaving a gash down the side of my face and ripping my mask off altogether.

For a second, I panicked. My face was exposed to the world and I could get outed at any second.

But as I looked up and saw Strelizia sitting atop a mound of Klaxosaurs, I decided I didn't care.

All that mattered was getting to Zero Two.

In front of me, Argenta's claws swung down, piercing into the wave of Klaxosaurs.

Perfect!

I leapt from the building and used a web line to swing from the back of my teammates' head.

"Huh?!" Miku shouted out as her Franxx whipped around. "Wait, is that-?"

I was already a few buildings away but I knew those things had some good zoom. I was hoping she wouldn't notice me swinging off of her, I guess if someone swung off the back of your head, you'd feel it too.

"Hiro?! Hiro are you the spider guy?!"

I could explain to them later. Zero Two was close and right now I needed to reach her. Also, I'm pretty sure they had more important things to worry about right now too, right?

Or not: As I neared my goal, I was jerked upwards as Delphinium rounded a building and grabbed one of my weblines. I swung up and over, landing on her arm.

"Hiro?!" Ichigo shouted. "What are you doing?!"

"Just getting some air," I grunted, urgency mounting. "Can we do this later?"

I went to spring away but Delphinium raised its hand to block me.

To my surprise, it was Goro's voice that answered me. "Hiro… you need to talk to her, don't you?"

I nodded, sighing. "Yeah. I'm sorry."

"Makes sense. That's the only reason you'd do something this stupid."

I shrugged in Delphinium's palm. "You got me there."

"We'll take you to her." Ichigo said, a bitterness in her tone. I'd have to make it up to these guys later.

I webbed myself on to their shoulder. "Thanks guys."

From my perch, I watched as Delphinium charged towards the raging Strelizia. "So how are you guys going to get her to -" I began, but was cut off as Ichigo's voice yelled out in a rage.

"UGH! ZERO TWO!"

Without warning, Ichigo slammed her spear into the side of Strelizia, as Goro yelled for her to stop. Strelitzia, in kind, swung its tail for Ichigo's head, breaking her headgear as I ducked out of the way.

"ICHIGO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Goro yelled.

"Hey, precious cargo on your shoulder!" I shouted, slinking further down to avoid getting crushed.

Ichigo ignored us though, choking through sobs as she reared back and slapped Strelizia.

"You want Hiro so bad! Fine! TAKE HIM!"

Delphinium punched Strelizia in the side of the mouth and yanked her jaws apart. "Hiro, GO!" Goro shouted.

I shot two weblines on either side of Strelizia's mouth and slingshot myself through her door.

Rolling into a crouch inside, I gasped as I stood up.

Placed in the Pistil seat, Zero Two was there, prone and glassy-eyed, staring through me with no readable expression. Her horns reached into the ceiling, connecting her to the Franxx itself.

"Zero Two...?" I asked, slowly approaching.

No response. I furrowed my brows, aggravating the cut on my cheek. Gently, I brushed my fingers against her horns.

"I need… I need to connect with you again."

I wasn't sure what compelled me - maybe an inverse of my Inner Alarm, or an intuitive facet of it, but I tapped my forehead against her antler-esque horns.

A sensation from behind my eyes set my mind aflame and the world went white.

In front of me in an empty void, I saw the Little Zero Two, curled up and alone.

I approached her and my echoing footsteps told me this was for real, not just a memory.

"Hey..." I said, kneeling down to her.

She looked up at me, red cheeks stained with tears. She trembled and said one word to me, sounding terrified.

"Monster."

I frowned. "No. You're not a monster. I'm the monster for leaving you."

I blinked and she was grown again. How I knew her now.

"I'll never leave your side again." I assured her.

Zero Two collapsed into my arms and my head began to burn again.

I gasped, eyes shooting open back in the cockpit.

Zero Two's horns shattered unevenly and she sprang from the Pistil mount, looking stunned to see me.

"ZERO TWO!" I screamed, tears falling from my eyes as I threw my arms around her.

She turned violently in my arms, sobbing and quivering. "No! Don't look at me!"

I held her tightly, crying harder myself. "I forgot. I forgot! I'm so sorry. But you won't be alone again. I'll always be here for you."

"You can't mean that," she sobbed. "I used you! I called you fodder!"

"You didn't know! Neither of us knew! And I called you a monster so we're even."

"That's right," she choked, "I am a monster! I hurt you and your friends!"

I pulled away from her, cupping her cheeks in my hands. "No. You're not a monster. We can work this out. We have to be able to talk this out." I looked her in the eyes as she finally met my gaze. "You saved me as a kid and you've saved me now, time and time again by giving me the strength to fight back. Maybe we couldn't do it as kids, but we can get away now! See the outside together. We can finally leave this place. I can do anything as long as I'm with you. Together… we're unstoppable. We are one."

Overcome with emotion, I pressed my lips to hers, finally initiating a kiss of my own.

Tears ran down her face and she began to reciprocate the kiss, her tongue and mine beginning to dance around each other as I pushed her against the Stamen seat.

Our clothes were discarded as we began to connect, both mentally and physically.

Strelizia was knocked into the air, but sprang to life, more powerful than ever as Zero Two and I joined together, linking as one.

Brimming with joy, Strelizia took its spear, and plowed through dozens of Klaxosaurs effortlessly as it approached the continent-sized beast.

"ZERO TWO!" I screamed in ecstasy.

"DARLING!" She yelled as we pierced through the massive Klaxosaur.

"ZERO TWO!"

"Darling, DARLING, DARLING, DAAAAARLING!"

As we emerged out from the Klaxosaur, she let out an ecstatic cry, "Darling, I'm so happy I met you!" She cried between happy sobs, "I love you!"

I laughed. This was truly the greatest joy I'd ever experienced as my heart swelled in my chest. "I couldn't have said it better myself. I love you too!"

We were reminded that our comm links were on when Zorome chimed in, "cut the coms next time you guys are going to be so cheesy..."

"That was beautiful!" Futoshi blubbered.

"I'm… really happy for you," Ichigo admitted.

I grinned and Zero Two looked back at me, overjoyed.

"We need to break through the opening of the Grand Crevasse," I told her. "You up for it?"

She grinned at me, "if we're together, darling, we can take on the world!"

We both unleashed a war cry and drove our Franxx through the heart of the Grand Crevasse, emerging from the other end with the core on our spear. As it shattered, we surveyed the battlefield. It was over. We had won.

In the cockpit, Zero Two got up wrapped her arms around me, and I held her tightly, relishing the feeling of her warm skin against mine.

"I never thought I'd find you," she purred, burying her face into my neck.

"I'm just glad you did."

We stayed like that for awhile, until we became aware that my squadmates were outside, waiting for us to leave.

"We should probably get dressed and go out there," I laughed.

She seemed to tense up a bit. "Are you sure...?"

I remembered the… unpleasant scene from yesterday. I squeezed her tightly. "Hey, we can make them understand. Together."

And hand in hand, we did. We left Strelizia, and the two of us told the squad our stories: meeting as children, the memory loss, and my spectacular mutation that only seemed to grow the more I road with Zero Two.

And as much as I wished that was the end of the story of that day, it wasn't. As we were preparing to return our Franxx to the Plantation, my Inner Alarm shook my skull. I turned in time to see a massive black and blue hand rise from the Grand Crevasse and slam down into Plantation 13.

In a panic, we all got in our Franxx and returned, only to see that everything in the plant was wiped out.

Everything except Mistilteinn, our home. We used the remains of the briefing room to send a distress signal and, with no other options, returned home.

We were all exhausted and confused, and most of us went right to bed. While we had won the battle, what was the cost?

But as I left the dining room to get some sleep, Zero Two stopped me, grabbing my hand.

"Darling… stay with me tonight?"

It was a simple request, but the happiness in her voice, so much more pure than any I had heard from her, melted my heart. "Of course."

That night, I learned what came after kissing. And as I laid close to her throughout the night, I realized that this was the feeling I had been chasing throughout my childhood, looking for missing memories. What was missing was a part of me, and laying next to Zero Two, I knew that I had found it. We had found our strength in each other.

And in the coming months we would need it more than ever.

A week had passed since then... and since we had taken the Grand Crevasse from the Klaxosaurs, and, for whatever reason, one week since we had received any contact from Nana, Hachi, the doctor, or any of our overseers. By all appearances and purposes, they had forsaken us, and we weren't entirely certain why.

The first day was definitely the hardest. Usually, all our food was prepared for us by the time we woke up for our morning rounds. But when it was clear that the house DIDN'T magically do these things on it's own, Zorome and Futoshi went up in a panic. It took combined efforts for myself, Ichigo, and Goro to convince them that we'd be okay. Zero Two, meanwhile, located the food, and with my help we actually managed to prepare a meal for everyone while only ruining _one_ pair of clothes. They were mine anyway and it's not like we didn't have uniforms to spare.

Day one also brought one of the more… interesting conversations of my entire life.

"Hey, Hiro, Zero Two, can you join us in the living room?" Ikuno called into the kitchen as I finished taking inventory of our food supplies.

"Well, darling, do you think this is about Strelitzia turning red when we connected physically or about you being the Spectacular Spider-Man?" Zero Two asked me, teasingly.

"I'm still hoping it's about my haircut," I quipped.

She tilted her head at me, confused. "Did you cut your hair?"

"Nevermind," I laughed.

It was, of course, not about my glorious hair, and as we entered the unusually silent gathering space, no one wanted to make eye contact with us.

"So..." Ichigo began, trailing off.

"So," I repeated.

"So when were you going to tell us you were Spider-Man?" Goro finished. I opened my mouth for a quip, but he cut me off, "WITHOUT sarcasm, please."

"Well that's no fun," I replied. "To be honest, I never really planned on it."

"Never?" Ichigo echoed, sounding hurt. "Why? How long have you been like this?"

"From the sounds of it, right after the doctor wiped our memories, right darling?" Zero Two answered.

I nodded. "Way back at the Garden, I started noticing I could climb walls and other stuff like that. The shooting webs didn't happen until I started riding with Zero Two. But… I didn't tell you because being different isn't exactly, 'okay,' with Papa or anyone else here."

"You don't think we would have accepted you, Hiro?" Kokoro asked, sounding hurt.

I shifted uneasily. I would usually deflect this with wit but I was sweating bullets too much for that. Zero Two answered in my stead. "When I first came here, you all stared at my horns. It… it was all a lot of you saw. If I could hide my differences, I would. I think that's why he did as such… am I right, darling?"

I gave her an appreciative smile. "Something like that. And even if you guys were cool with it, I don't think the Adults would have liked it. They were fed up with me as it was."

There was an awkward pause in the room before Zorome raised his hand.

"Uh… yeah?" I acknowledged, feeling a bit weird about him acting like this was a class.

"Does shooting the webs hurt?!" He blurted out. Apparently, this had been bugging him for awhile.

I laughed. "What? No."

"Is that why sometimes when you think really hard you used to crouch?!" Miku asked.

Zero Two looked at me and giggled. "You used to crouch to think?!"

"It-it just feels natural!" I blushed. "Sometimes I go into air vents to think now. Dark spaces seem more natural to me, for whatever reason." I blushed harder, "Wait, you guys don't need to know that!"

Laughter rang around the room as I buried my face in my palms. Zero Two wrapped her arms around one of mine. "I told you it was fascinating, darling!"

After a thorough grilling about how exactly my webs worked (I need to replenish with water and starchy foods), they finally released me from this embarrassing interrogation. But as Zero Two and I went to leave, Kokoro stopped us, "W-wait!"

I turned, hoping no one had thought to ask why I shot webs from my wrist and not my butt like a normal spider. Quite frankly, that kept me up more nights than I ever wanted to admit.

But she looked rather timid, gulping before saying, "I just wanted to thank you for standing up for me at the beach the other day. When the Nines wanted to punish me and Mitsuru..."

Mitsuru looked away. Apparently he had the thought on his mind as well.

"Hey, you guys are my friends," I replied with a grin. "Elites or not, I'm not letting those guys mess with any of you."

"They're nothing more than Papa's lapdogs," Zero Two added, leaning on my shoulder.

By day three we were beginning to notice that we were running low on clothes and dishware.

We were all gathered in the living room, again, starting to smell kind of bad, Ichigo racking her brain on what to do as everyone panicked.

Except Zero Two, who looked utterly amused at the predicament. "Why don't you just _wash_ the clothes?"

Everyone looked at her, confused. Myself included. "What, you didn't think they just kept making new uniforms and threw out the old ones, did you?" She asked. "What did you think the machines in the basement were for?"

"We… we have a basement?" Ichigo asked, openly perplexed.

It became _very_ apparent to Zero Two just how sheltered the standard Parasite Children were and she burst out laughing.

By day five, Ichigo, Zero Two, and I, together, managed to put together a chore wheel once it became apparent to all of us just how much actually went into maintaining a house full of ten teenage human beings.

To be honest… I was really proud of Zero Two for throwing herself into this. I knew that part of it was that she wanted to make things up to the Squad after attacking them during her emotional breakdown.

"This is such a primitive way to assign tasks, but I kinda like it," Ichigo mused, cutting the paper.

"I used to have to do chores like this for mouthing off when I was part of the Nines," Zero Two shrugged. "At least it was fair when they decided them." She scowled. "I hated laundry though."

"It's just putting them in machines though," I replied.

"For now. They made me do them by hand." She shuddered.

"Ugh… yeah that sounds awful."

Now, by day eight, we seemed to have gotten into a good rhythm of figuring out who would cook, clean, do laundry, and all the rest. As light poured into the room, I could tell it was still early as I woke, quietly creeping out of the room to make my way to the bathroom.

As I finished my business and washed my hands, I brushed some stray hair from my eyes, and paused.

...had I bumped my head yesterday?

I pulled my bangs back, and examined two miniscule lumps beginning to form on my forehead, perfectly symmetrical to each other. "...huh."

I crept back into bed and shut my eyes, trying to get back to sleep for a few more hours. It didn't come easy, my thoughts restless at what this could possibly mean.

When it was time to wake up, I didn't get a chance to really ask Zero Two about the horns; she had a… certain way she liked to start the day and it usually kept my mouth busy with other things. Apparently, kissing worked on a few other body parts and I confess I forgot the rest of the world when these things were happening.

Once we had finished our, "morning routine," and were getting dressed, a knock came at our door before I even remembered to ask. "Hey, Hiro, Zero Two, you got a minute?" Goro's voice rang out.

"Think they're going to say we were too loud again, darling?" Zero Two whispered to me through a few snickers.

"I hope not," I blushed as I replied, quietly, before calling out to my friend, "what's up?"

"There's something we want your opinion on."

Whatever it was sounded urgent, so we followed him down into the basement. It turned out he had finally found the right keys to open the door that said, "Do Not Enter," and opened it. Both Zero Two and I offered to just bust it down, but he insisted on respecting the property of others in case Papa ever came back for us.

In large tanks in the back of the room was glowing magma reserves, which powered the entire house.

It was already half empty.

"This… this is our entire power supply," Goro explained, holding up the manual. "It's been a week and we've already drained half of it."

"At the rate we're going, we'll be in the dark by the end of the week," Ichigo added. "We need to conserve energy."

I frowned, realizing what this meant. "Hand washing all the clothes and dishes. Using less machines. Bathing in the river."

Zero Two groaned. "Well, I suppose it was nice while it lasted."

"I'll break the news to the others," Ichigo assured us, "can you bring up the washtubs? We'll probably need to start washing the clothes in the river too."

At the scowl on Zero Two's face, an idea struck me. "I'll do laundry today. I kind of have an idea."

"So are you sure about this, darling?" Zero Two asked, amused.

"Nah, but it will probably be fun." I assured her .

After washing all the laundry, we had taken to tying as many shirts and pants around my arms and legs as possible while I was in my boxers. I called it the drying project. By now, most of the squad had taken a break from their other chores to watch out the windows curiously.

"And… there!" Zero Two declared, finishing with a kiss on the cheek. "Knock 'em dead, darling."

With a running start, a bit more difficult weighed down, I jumped, and shot a web to the ceiling of the house. In a full swing, I launched myself into the the air as high as I could, flipping in the air, the wet clothes flopping in the wind as I rose and fell in the air. On the way down, I used another web line to swing down and launch myself into the air again, sun and wind whipping across my face. I could hear Zero Two laugh and clapping from the ground as she hung up the clothes we couldn't fit onto my torso.

Half an hour later, I landed, panting as the wet clothes were beginning to weigh heavy on me.

"They're still a little damp," I admitted, gasping for air.

"Didn't work as well as you thought, darling?" She teased.

"I guess being Spider-Man doesn't help with chores," I joked back. "I'll figure something out."

She tapped her horns to my forehead. "Points for effort. I really like this side of you."

I grinned back. "It's nice to let loose a bit."

As it turned out, it did help me repair the parts of the wall near the ceiling. As I clung to the wall, spackling the upper parts of it, I let go and landed on the floor to reload my putty knife and jumped back up to the ceiling to continue my repairs.

Mitsuru and Zorome watched me from the stairs.

"I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing that," Mitsuru admitted. He'd been nicer since I apologized to him, which was a relief.

"It took me like a year to get used to doing it, so I won't hold that against you," I joked, finishing the last hole patch as I hung upside down.

We were interrupted as Ikuno walked into the room, banging a wooden spoon against a pot. "Dinner time."

"RACE YOU!" I cried, using a web to immediately swing into the mess hall.

"HIRO THAT'S CHEATING!" Zorome yelled, frustrated.

After dinner, we all dug out some candles from the basement and decided we would use natural light and candles as much as possible in order to conserve magma energy for cooking. We all talked and joked around the living room until it was dark and our numbers began to dwindle as some of us retreated to bed.

Once Zero Two and I had made it back to our room, I brushed the hair from my eyes again, and realized those bumps were a bit more pronounced. Ah, right. Those. "Hey, Zero Two?"

She turned to me as she changed into her nightgown. "Yes?"

"Can you… look at something for me?" I asked, nervously.

At my tone, she tilted her head, curiously. "What's the matter, darling?"

I gulped and pulled up my bangs. "I've got these weird bumps on my head where your horns would be...?"

Zero Two stepped up to me, immediately. It's funny, this used to make me so uncomfortable, but now it never bothered me anymore. She scanned the bumps and stepped back, frowning. "Oh no..."

"What's up?" I asked.

She sat down to a stack of papers that seemed to be constantly scattered across our floor. She had taken to some night time coloring to unwind. Absentmindedly, she began doodling on a blank page by her feet. I sat down next to her and picked up one of my drawings - a stick figure with a spider mask.

One day I'd get this right. "Is something wrong?" I asked her.

"This… this is why the Stamen's I'd ride with would die… I would mutate them with my weird crossbreed blood when we would connect," Zero Two admitted, tracing a circle repeatedly and aimlessly.

"Yeah, but we already know that it won't kill me," I shrugged. "I'm annoyingly persistent, remember?"

Her somber attitude cracked and she fell over, leaning her head on my shoulder. "I think, instead, you're mutating into something like me."

"That just means I'll have horns and spider powers, right?" I asked. "That's not bad."

She looked away. "But… I'm turning you into a monster… like me."

"Zero Two… you're not a monster." I assured her. "You were never a monster."

"Thanks, darling, but… being a monster is what I was created to be."

I was struck with an idea, a sight that had hit me back when I was swinging through the city. "Hey… do you want to get some air?"

She tilted her head at me, confused. "Sure, why?"

"I want to show you something," I told her, grinning. "I think it might help."

She smiled back. "Alright, darling. I trust you."

Grabbing her hand we snuck out of our house, out of Mistilteinn, into the ruins of Plantation 13.

While the facility itself was mostly intact, there were no lights running. Thankfully, I remembered the way until we made it out to the viewing platform for the destroyed city. The ruins of the once-glowing metropolis sat dark and desolate, but I scanned the rubble for the tallest, most intact building I could find. Finding one that would work, I hopped up onto the railing and extended a hand towards my partner.

"Darling, what are you doing?" She asked, always amused with my antics.

"I want to show you something," I answered, coyly. "do you trust me?"

She placed her hand in mind and smiled. "Of course. I love you."

"Great. Hold on tight, okay?"

She did as I asked and I began to swing the two of us towards the building. It was a bit harder considering I was doing this one handed and some of the buildings weren't structurally sound, but when we reached the side, I managed to climb the two of us to the top.

As we stood, overlooking the ruins of the city, I used the light of the moon to catch my bearings finally, I smiled as I saw it in the horizon; the ocean. "Do you see that?"

Zero Two stood next to me, squinting. A faint smile etched across her lips at the sight. "The ocean. It's so far away but we can see it. But what does...?"

"It doesn't matter that you have horns or that I shoot webs," I told her, holding her hand. "I know I've said that before, but… who cares if we ever Pilot again, or why you or me were created? Up here? Up here we can be anything we want to be." I laughed a bit. "Who can stop us if they don't like it?"

Zero Two smiled at me with watery eyes. She seemed at a loss for words and opted to rest her head against mine instead, reminding me she was just a bit taller than me.

"And one day, we'll make it to that ocean, just like we did at the beach." I promised. "And it won't matter what anyone thinks we are. All that matters is that I'm your darling and you're my sweetheart."

She giggled softly. "Sweetheart? That's a new one."

I blushed. "Well, you like sweet things and when I first met you, you always made my heart feel like it was going to jump out of its chest. Do you not like it? I don't -"

She interrupted my nervous rambling my pressing her lips into mine lovingly.

"I love it, darling. I promise."

I relaxed a bit as we stared over the horizon. After a few minutes, I asked, "should we head back?"

She shook her head against mine. "No...let's stay like this a little longer."

I obliged and it was a good thing we did. In the night sky, we both saw a transport ship pass overhead, towards the Grand Crevasse.

"Isn't that one of Papa's ships?" I asked.

She looked up and nodded. "What do you think it could be doing?"

I grinned at her. "Want to go find out?"

She grinned back. "That's just what I would expect from my darling!"

Together, we leapt from the building, feeling reborn as the wind pushed against us.

* * *

 **I hope you all enjoyed this double chapter, which marks my departure to an original ending I have crafted. Let me provide some background. Not as excuse, but perhaps just some insight.**

 **My inspiration from this story came while watching Episode 15, while watching Hiro chase after Zero Two in a training unit. You see, I was playing Spider-Man on the PS4 at the time and thought how much more satisfying something like that would be. The rest of the story was built from that flash of an idea, hence why I wanted that to be a point.**

 **Still, following canon can be frustrating, which is why I wanted to mix up as many elements as possible - the Nines at the beach, having Ichigo get absorbed instead of Goro, omitting the feud where they split the house, etc.**

 **If you're still reading the story, thank you. If you've decided that I've lost you, well, that's okay too. You can't please everybody, and I have learned to accept that. Any and all criticism is welcome, just please try to be considerate and constructive. We are all, always, learning. If you aren't learning, you aren't living.**


	15. Truth and Lies

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing. I wrote it for fun. Hopefully you have fun reading it!

* * *

Following the ship was pretty hard as we crossed the barren plains; nothing to swing off of. Thankfully, with the Plantation so close to the Grand Crevasse after the attack, we were able to make it on foot.

The ship itself was deserted, parked outside of the Crevasse. "What are they doing here?" I mused aloud.

"Isn't it dangerous to be here without a Franxx?" Zero Two asked. "What would they be doing here if they aren't fighting something?"

We walked through one of the now-empty openings of the Crevasse. Once on foot and not rushing through in ecstasy-fueled slaughter, I noticed something that had escaped me a few weeks ago.

"Hey, Zero Two… does this place look like a big hallway?"

She looked around and nodded. "I thought the same thing, darling. It almost looks man-made."

"Didn't Zorome and Miku say they saw something human looking fall out of Klaxosaur core?"

My partner and I exchanged uneasy looks.

Then she leaned over and licked my cheek. "You taste the same in mysterious caves, darling."

I snorted. Glad I could count on her quirks to break the tension. "Well I'm glad we got to the bottom of THAT, at least, I was wondering. Come on."

As we exited the hallway of the Crevasse, we were both shocked as we came across a large platform elevator, which was absent. "They just went down into the Klaxosaur base?" Zero Two asked. "You'd think that was just suicide… not that I'd particularly mourn any of them."

I squatted down at the edge the Crevasse and peered down. "It must go down for a ways, I can't see a thing..."

I picked up a rock and chucked it down the pit but neither of us ever heard it hit the bottom.

"I wonder how far down it goes..." Zero Two tapped her chin. "Wait… darling do you hear something?"

The elevator was whirring to life and I could see a faint light approaching from below. I looked around in a panic, but didn't see a lot good hiding places in this giant, rocky crater. Without much other choice, I grabbed Zero Two by the waist and pulled us up to the ceiling of the hallway with a web line. Hanging upside down while holding onto someone was a bit tricky, but you'd be surprised how many people you can sneak past just because they usually aren't looking up. Still, I managed to hang from all fours while Zero Two laid against my chest.

"Darling," she purred into my ear, "why haven't we made love his way yet?"

I gulped and nearly dropped the both of us as my face turned a lovely shade of crimson. "L-later."

We were both silent as the elevator platform came into view, clicked into the receiving dock and a single, blood-stained man began limping away down the hallway, not noticing the two teenagers looking down.

His breath was ragged and his steps were exaggerated, and there was no denying all the various wounds about him, but I still felt terrified.

"That's one of the Sages… Papa's men, isn't it?" I breathed.

Zero Two nodded. "And what would one of them be doing here, alone?"

The robed man staggered to the ship, activating the ramp, before collapsing, dead, against the ground.

"Uh oh." I muttered. Urgently, I lowered the two of us to the ground and I removed the mask of the sage.

Both Zero Two and I backed up and winced at the sight of the man; his skin was ashen gray, shriveled and wrinkled underneath, and considering all his wounds were chest level, I don't think either of those things were related.

"Is… is this what the sages look like?" I asked, hesitantly.

Zero Two shrugged. "Not even the Nines saw any of them under the masks or robes. I'm certainly not shedding any tears for them." She looked up the ramp to the ship. "Feel like a little more spying?"

"Always."

Creeping onto the ship, there wasn't much to it; though Zero Two seemed to know the layout. "All these are built the same," she shrugged, walking towards a control panel that was unlike anything I had ever seen before, "just like the Plantations. Let's see if their onboard computer says anything..."

Her fingers flew over the screen, eyes darting to and fro before gasping. "What?!"

"What is it?" I asked, stepping forward and looking at the screen.

There was a picture of something that blurred the entire concept of what I knew of, "humans," and, "Klaxosaur." What I saw was a humanoid girl, but she was blue and black, covered in scales much like the Klaxosaurs. Attached to her back were blackened tentacles that seemed flow haphazardly. Perhaps more jarringly, is that besides the tentacles, she looked a lot like...

"She looks like me," Zero Two whispered, more to herself than me.

I read the words underneath outloud, confused. "Assassinate… Klaxosaur Princess?"

* * *

"Hold on… the Klaxosaurs have a princess?" Mitsuru asked, incredulously. "A HUMAN Princess, no less?"

We had called a meeting the next day to talk about what we had seen and it went over about as well as I expected it to.

"And supposedly she killed somewhere between one to five of Papa's men, including one of the Sages?" Ichigo repeated.

"That's the gist of it," Zero Two answered, leaning back on the sofa. She turned and looked back at me, as I was crouched on the back of the couch. The more I mutated, the more I found myself doing this absentmindedly. "Am I missing anything, darling?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Other than that under the masks, the Sages haven't been aging well. I don't think the immortality the Adults get comes cheap."

"What does this mean though? Is Papa in trouble?" Zorome asked, nervously.

I gulped. This was the part I knew was going to be the hardest. "I think it's time to consider that Papa's teachings to us haven't been 100% truthful."

Zorome jumped to his feet, immediately, and Goro grabbed his arm to hold him back. "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!"

"I mean, a lot of it doesn't add up," I explained, slowly. "Growing up we were told the Klaxosaurs were just mindless beasts that showed up because they were attracted to magma energy extractions."

"Yeah, so?"

"If that were true, why would they have a base, or a princess?" Zero Two answered. "And then go to assassinate her without letting any of us, the closest Plantation with Pilots to that base, know about it? We could have easily provided back up."

A silence hung over the room. Finally, after a minute, a quiet voice spoke up; Kokoro's. "I think they might be right..."

"You too, Kokoro?" Miku asked, sadly.

She nodded, slowly, pulling out the book on reproduction from her back.

"You still have that?" Ikuno asked.

"I… I didn't want to get rid of it." Kokoro admitted. "But if human genders are for more for just Piloting Franxx… what else could they have lied to us about?"

Zorome's face fell. "I wish we could just ask him..."

"We might want to consider he's not coming back for us," Goro replied, gently. "It's been two weeks..."

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!" He yelled back, tears beginning to well up, storming from the room.

"Zorome!" Miku cried, chasing after him.

After a moment, Ichigo sighed. "Well, I didn't think he'd take it well, but I think you guys all have a point. But… what do we do with this information?"

A silence hung over the air.

"If they aren't going to drop off rations for us, we'll run out of food," I answered. "We should learn how to plant, hunt, and gather our own. There's plenty of books about that stuff in the library."

"And there's plenty of fish in the ponds and rivers here!" Zero Two grinned broadly. "I'm a pro at catching fish! Right, darling?" She winked at me, and I turned crimson remembering the two times I had bumped into her, nude, with a fish in her mouth.

"R-right," I stammered out.

"Fishing could actually be kind of fun!" Futoshi agreed. "We'd have to make some fishing poles though."

"I'm sure we could make room for some plants in the garden and greenhouse," Kokoro added, enthusiastically. "It'd be a shame to have to pull up some of the flowers, but I guess we can't eat those."

"It would be best to prepare for the worst," Ikuno agreed, begrudgingly.

* * *

For the next week, we set to work researching and constructing ways to sustain ourselves in the event that we were right; we built fishing poles and lures, we planted vegetables in the garden, and even found some seeds for fruit trees.

Zero Two and I were walking to a clearing in the woods to plant some of the fruit trees when she paused to look at one. "What kind of tree is this, darling? I don't think I've run into this one."

I paused and examined it, squinting my eyes to recall what I had read once. "A sakura, I think."

"What do they look like in bloom?"

I smiled to her. "They're really pretty. The flowers are the same color as your hair."

And to think just a few months ago, I couldn't even properly talk to her. She turned and smiled at me as we made our way to the clearing. Finding a nice, sunny spot, I dug up some dirt and popped a seed for an apple tree in the dirt.

"Alright," I smiled, covering the seed. "It'll take a long time for a tree to bloom, but these babies will taste great."

When I looked up, I saw the smile on my partner's face and faltered. "You okay, sweetheart?" I asked.

As we made our way a bit further to give the tree roots plenty of space, she shifted. "Do you… remember that book Kokoro has?"

"About having kids and stuff?" I replied. "Yeah, what about it?"

"It's just… one thing I envy about you humans." Zero Two began digging her own small patch of dirt before dropping a seed in. "The ability to leave something behind."

"You can't?" I asked, curiously.

She shook her head. "I'm a crossbreed. Genetically, I wouldn't be able to have a human or Klaxosaur kid." She gave me a sad smile. "Otherwise we might be in trouble of being parents by now, darling."

"Oh..." I replied. Usually I'd have a quip for this, but I felt at a loss for words. "I'm sorry, Zero Two."

"It's okay, darling," her smile returned, and it seemed genuine. "I've at least figured out what being human means."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

Without warning, she grabbed my hands, and pulled me towards her, spinning me around in a weird, childish dance. "Being here with all of you! Living together, figuring all this out. I've never been happier, darling!"

I laughed and danced back with her. This is definitely what I had been fighting for; getting more of those pure moments of happiness out of my partner. "Me too," I replied, beaming.

We spun around a few more times before falling to the ground in a fit of laughter. As we finished our task, she looked at the positioning of the sun. "I should go, darling, me and the girls were going to take a bath in the river." She pecked me on the cheek and snuck me a sneaky grin. "No spying, you pervert."

"Well darn, what am I going to do with my day now?" I replied, dryly.

* * *

Things were quiet over the next few days and I thought maybe things would begin to feel normal as we adjusted to life without Papa and APE. I was heading to the river for cool off after a long day and I was surprised to see Mitsuru in the shallow waters, laying with his back propped up against a rock.

"You want some company?" I asked.

He jumped, slightly, at my voice and I realized he'd gotten a new haircut. "Looking sharp," I added, walking over and laying back in the stream. "I just needed to unwind, don't mind me."

"Oh… sure thing Hiro."

Things between the two of us had definitely gotten better. While I think part of it was me remembering and apologizing, I also think part of it had to do with how often he was hanging out with Kokoro in the greenhouse.

"Hey, Hiro, can I ask you something?"

Mitsuru's voice was a far cry from his usual cold voice. I hadn't heard a vulnerability like that in years. "Sure Mitsuru, what's up?"

"Something happened when Kokoro went to cut my hair..."

* * *

"Kokoro wants to have a baby?! With Mitsuru?!" Zero Two giggled as she drew a picture on our floor.

"Apparently!" I replied, pacing around the room. Except when I pace, I usually don't stop at the walls; I just go up them, across the ceiling, down the other wall, and start over. I was three hundred and sixty degree pacing, which was reserved for stress. "He was asking like, how I knew I loved you and what I did. I didn't know what to do!"

"Well, darling, you better not be putting babies in any of the other girls," Zero Two replied in a mock-stern fashion, giggling more as I gave her an exasperated look. "What did you say?"

"I just… I told him that being closer to her was up to him. That when I knew I loved you I wanted to know everything about you, to be at your side." I paused on the ceiling as I said this, blushing. "And if he feels like that about Kokoro, he should do what he think feels right."

Zero Two gave me a funny look and stood up from the floor. While standing, she was at eye level with me as I stood on the ceiling. "Darling, you're the only human I've met who just says all these embarrassing things so freely." She stood on her toes to kiss my lips. "I love that about you. Now pull me up there so we can make love on the ceiling."

I almost fell when she said this. "Y-you can't just say it like that!"

"Just do it!"


	16. Crash

Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

A few nights later I walked up to my room to see Zero Two sitting on the floor, coloring again. There were pages scattered all over, and I noticed that she was filling in some drawings she had been working on since I had moved into this room with her. "Can I see these? Looks like they're coming along really well."

She nodded. When she focused on drawing and coloring, she'd poke her tongue out of her mouth a little bit, and it was one of my favorite sights. But looking down at the pictures, I recognized them, vaguely.

"Hey...these look like the picture book," I smiled, picking one up.

"Mhmm!" She beamed. "I've been working really hard to recreate it. I thought it'd be nice to have."

"It's nearly perfect," I marveled, running my fingers over the illustrations. "Zero Two, you're really good at this!"

"Thank you, darling! Do you want to help?" She asked, handing me a pencil with a smile that was hard for me to say no to.

"I'll try," I replied, uneasily sitting next to her. "I'm not much of an artist."

"I'm sure you'll do great, darling. Try drawing the prince."

I screwed up my eyebrows as I tried to remember when he looked like. As I began scratching the paper, a knock came at the door to interrupt us. "Come in!" I called, absentmindedly.

We both paused as Mitsuru and Kokoro walked in, holding hands and looking a bit nervous.

"What's up, you lovebirds?" Zero Two teased.

If the two were nervous before, they were trembling after that. But after taking a minute to gain her composure, Kokoro asked, "Can we...can we have a wedding?"

I dropped my pencil. "Wait, what?"

"Like in the book you guys told us about..." Kokoro added, nervously.

Zero Two and I exchanged glances, and she was definitely far more excited about the idea than I was. "Absolutely!" She beamed.

Okay, guess we're doing this.

* * *

We had run the idea by our squad the next morning, and after some convincing, we decided to take the day to prepare a ceremony, the girls began taking the curtains off the walls to make Kokoro a dress, while Futoshi and Zorome painted a mural on the back of the house. Not being artistically inclined, Goro and I set up chairs and tables, and I would work on making the best meal I could out of the fish and small game we had been hunting over the last few days. I wasn't much for fishing, but I could snag rabbits and the like with my web lines.

As the morning shifted to afternoon, Zero Two burst from the house, and my heart raced a bit when I saw she was wearing one of our Squad's uniforms. It was a bit short and tight on her, and I could feel my forehead sweat just a bit.

"Come, darling, we need to pick flowers for the bride!"

I looked at Goro, confused, who just shrugged at me. "You guys are the experts, don't look at me."

"Yeah, that's me," I joked as I walked to Zero Two, who was beckoning me towards the wooded area. "Spider-Man and wedding expert."

After spending some time laugh and picking flowers, we returned to see most everything was ready. Before the ceremony, Ikuno found an old camera, and we all took a squad photograph as Zero Two hooked my arm lovingly.

With all the preparations complete, I sat down next to Zero Two as Futoshi, through tears, began what we figured was our best facsimile of what wedding ceremonies probably were.

Kokoro teared up as Mitsuru promised to be by her forever, and he faltered when she did the same, telling him how happy being with him made her.

Not that we had much to go on to tell us if we were doing it, "correctly," but it sure felt that way. Either way, it should have been a happy time, where we all celebrated our friends union, together.

But, for the first time in a month, my head began to buzz, my Inner Alarm hitting me in full force. I gasped, and Zero Two looked at me. She seemed to know what was going on in my head just from the look on my face.

"Trouble, darling?" She asked, worried.

I spun around in my chair, on instinct, and shot as many webs as I could covering the back door. Not a few seconds later, threatening pounding could be heard echoing across the back yard, making everyone jump, and the ringing in my head worse.

"RUN!" I shouted to my friends.

They all looked at me, alarmed, but as the pounding continued, did as such. Zero Two grabbed my hand to pull me along, but I stayed put. "Wait," I whispered to her, "I have an idea."

Grabbing her by the waist, I shot a web line and pulled the two of us up to the roof of the house.

Moments, later, a group of gunman charged into the yard. "Where did they run off to?!" One of them hissed.

"Into the woods, obviously," a rather lax, flamboyant voice laughed, following the gunman out into the yard; I looked down and scowled. It was Nine Alpha, flanked by the rest of the Nines. "Papa said to go get the two. Stay here and make sure none of them loop back around. I guess we have to go do everything."

The Nines split up and followed my friends into the trees.

I went to spring into the trees, but this time Zero Two held me back. "Darling...the Nines are different. Let me handle them."

I paused, meeting her gaze. She had the same determination in her eyes that I did, her green irises glowing with the same anger I was feeling. "Okay." I nodded. "I'll take care of these guys. Be careful."

She gave me a quick peck on the lips. "Being careful is no fun, darling."

With that, she sprang into the trees, rustling the leaves as she hopped from branch to branch.

"What was that?!" One of the gunmen yelled.

Distracted, they almost made it too easy to pull one of them off the ground with a web line. I shot a few rapid fire webs to spin him in the air, wrapping him up and hanging him against the ceiling. Springing behind the chimney, I could hear the swears and yells go up as the guards turned and saw one of their comrades all webbed up. "The spider freak is here! Find him!"

"So rude," I whispered to myself.

As one guard patrolled around the side out the house, I swung down, arcing from the roof, and kicking him into the side of the house. Wind knocked out of the guard, I webbed him against the wall, covering his mouth as well. I whispered, "shhh," to him before springing back up to the safety of the roof. I was able to sling over to the other side of the house and repeat this same takedown on another guard.

Thinning the herd down in similar fashion, I heard a shout from the woods, letting me know I was taking too long, I dispatched of the last guard by simply pulling him up to the roof, and then letting him fall back to the ground in a sick crunch. I sprang into the tree branches, heart pounding as I looked for any signs of my squadmates or partner.

From talks with Zero Two, I knew there were eight Nines. Zero Two herself made the ninth, ironically, leaving them with a squad of eight. The most dangerous were the silent triplets, Zeta, Theta, and Eta.

As I crouched on a nearby branch, I went silent as I saw a girl with green hair - Delta, the one I had strung up back at the beach - dragging an unconscious Futoshi.

"I hope I get to rough up more of you guys," she giggled to his body. "This is almost as fun as killing Klaxosaurs."

I snapped. I shot a web line down onto her shoulders, and pulled her up, throwing her higher than even the branch I was on. As her panicked eyes met mine, I scowled at her, pulling her down so she smashed face-first into the branch I was perched on, knocking her out. I left her dangling upside down from the tree as I jumped further into the woods as a warning to anyone who came back that way.

The Nines were not safe from Spider-Man.

As I jumped from tree to tree, I saw Zero Two fighting alone against Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Epsilon. With the odds of five against one, she wasn't exactly fairing well, as she was knocked onto her back with a punch from Epsilon.

Not wasting any time in my rage, I shot a web at the ground next to Epsilon and catapulted myself to him, smashing him across the face with a punch of my own, flinging the Nine onto his back.

I reached down and pulled Zero Two to her feet. "Five on two? You guys really need to learn some manners."

"I don't know darling," Zero Two spat, "I think they could use more guys."

The four rushed us, Beta being the closest, but I flipped over him in the air, and while above him, shot a glob of web fluid that covered his entire face. Vulnerable, he ran right into a roundhouse kick from Zero Two.

I landed on the shoulders of Gamma, and used my legs in a headscissor to slam them skull first against the ground. But in my rush, I was punched in the back of the head by Alpha. I was thrown forward a few feet and rolled across the dirt.

I could see what Zero Two meant, it felt like I got hit by a Klaxosaur. While I was down, Alpha and Epsilon rushed Zero Two and knocked her to the ground by overwhelming her with the two-on-one advantage. Flipping myself to my feet, I grabbed Alpha with a web line and pulled him towards me, but he was ready and tackled me when he was in mid air. With my wits about me, I used his momentum to keep rolling, and while on top of him slugged him across the face. While he was stunned, I jumped up and pinned him to the ground with my webs.

I turned to see Zero Two knockout Epsilon with a German Suplex, and, for some reason, I found that pretty attractive. But I can explore that later.

"Is that all of them?" I asked, catching my breath.

She shook her head, "I didn't see any of the Eta's."

Alpha chuckled, despite the black eye I had given him and being securely strapped to the ground by my webs. "Then that means they should have the offenders back on the ship."

"The...offenders?" I asked, baffled.

"Oh come on, did you forget when we first met, you disgusting insect?" Alpha sneered. I was so tempted to take a cheap shot at it. "Two of you have been holding contraband. Now they've been _reenacting it_."

"Kokoro and Mitsuru!" I gasped.

"Darling, go secure the ship!" Zero Two barked, grabbing my hands in her own. "I'll find the others."

"R-right!" I exclaimed. But as I turned to leave, I shot a web over Alpha's face, wiping the smug look off his face. "You talk too much."

Using two web lines against trees, I launched myself high above the trees, the house coming into view. Swinging with a line against the chimney, I launched myself past the house and saw a ship in the distance.

And my heart sank when I saw it beginning to fire up.

With nothing else to swing on, I landed on the ground in a roll and dashed towards it in a mad sprint. I had to protect my friends. It was up to me!

Already exhausted, I approached the ship as it began to lift off the ground. On instant, I extended both arms and shot several web lines, catching the rear of the ship, and pulled as hard as I could.

I don't know how much super strength I was granted with the proportional strength of a spider, but the ship kept rising against my lines,and my feet began to get pulled forward. I stumbled, desperately trying to dig my heels into the earth prevent take off.

The thrusters began to light up, and I knew I needed to do something different.

"COME ON!" I screamed, shooting even more web lines onto the back of the ship, and wrapping them into my firsts before tugging harder. The ship strained slightly against my pull as I arched my back.

Suddenly, I felt arms wrap around my chest and waist. "I've got you, darling!" Zero Two grunted, pulling back with me.

The ship strained against the two of us, but still continued to move forward. Through my strained eyes, I spotted it.

A boulder, to our right. "Zero Two! That rock, we need to get over there."

As the ship pulled us, we shuffled to the rock, and I abruptly stuck all my web lines from the ship to the boulder, shooting more blasts of web fluid to secure it. The ship struggled against the added weight, and I knew I was on to the right track

I sprang forward several yards to the biggest, sturdiest tree I could find, and shot several more web lines to the ship, and pulled again. Now facing resistance from two separate points, the ship began to tilt. I stuck my webs to the tree, and repeated the process with another tree several yards away.

As the ship strained and pulled against the trees and boulder I anchored it to, I realized that this wasn't going to bring it down. Looking around, I only had one option.

"Darling, what are you planning?" Zero Two asked, looking at me with alarm.

"Something pretty stupid," I admitted.

I took off running and jumped as high as I could into the air, swinging against the bottom of the ship, gaining enough momentum to launch myself into the air until I was above the cockpit.

Time seemed to slow down for a moment as I saw Nine Theta at the pilot controls for the ship.

Here's hoping this worked.

I shot two web lines on either side of the windshield, and launched myself through it, the glass shattering at the force as I dropped kicked Theta through the windshield, knocking her across the cockpit into the wall. The controls deadmanned, and the ship lurched forward, before crashing two stories into the ground. I shot several web lines across the room to secure myself in place as the ship crashed.

Once steady on the ground, I kicked the door open to the back of the ship to see the crash had knocked out Zeta and Eta, but also Mitsuru and Kokoro. "Shit!" I hissed.

I webbed up Zeta and Eta, but immediately felt woozy as I did so; I had overexerted the webs already today and needed to rehydrate. I grabbed Kokoro and Mitsuru over my shoulders and booted open the ramp at the back of the ship.

I left the ship, exhausted, and carried my two teammates over to Zero Two. In the distance, I could see the rest of my squad running up to us. I set them down, although I was definitely wobbly from overexertion.

"Darling, are you alright?" Zero Two asked, worried. "That was amazing, darling."

I rested my hands on my knees as I desperately tried to catch my breath. "Y-yeah. Let's get inside."

With the squads help, we got our injured friends inside and barricaded the doors. I then promptly collapsed on one of the sofas and passed out in the living room. But still, I had done it.

They didn't take my friends.

* * *

When I woke up, it was dark outside, and my eyes reoriented themselves. A candle was burning on the coffee table, and I looked across the room to see Zero Two lightly snoring on the couch opposite to me. The sight made me smile; she didn't leave my side.

As I stood up, her eyes flickered opened, and she rubbed them tiredly. "You're finally awake, darling."

"Yeah...stopping the ship took a lot out of me," I admitted. "Sorry to make you worry, sweetheart."

She just shook her head as she stood up and hugged me. "It doesn't matter, darling. We did it. We stopped the Nines and Papa's men."

"Good," I grinned. "Did I miss anything while I was out?"

Her smile fell a bit. "Another ship came to retrieve them. We all kept guard but they didn't even approach the house. But...I know the Nines. And I know how Papa works. I don't think this is over."

I frowned. "Well. If Papa wants a fight, we'll give him one."

Zero Two's smile returned and she kissed me, passionately. "That's just what I was hoping you'd say, darling."

* * *

 **Look, if Tobey Maquire can stop a train, Hiro can stop a spaceship.**


	17. Alliances

Disclaimer: this is purely a fanwork and I own nothing

* * *

The next few days in Mistilteinn were somber, to say the least. While we had fended off Kokoro and Mitsuru being taken for re-education by the Nines, none of us really knew why the wedding itself brought about the wrath of our superiors.

While Futoshi, Kokoro, and Mitsuru recovered, I took over their chores. I felt like I was somewhat responsible for all that had happened. Would we still have gotten ditched if I hadn't defied so many orders and swung through the city like an idiot? Maybe. I suppose I don't regret it either way, but I just felt bad that my teammates were suffering.

Zorome took it pretty hard though. It was this invasion that really opened his eyes to just how bad things were under Papa.

"What's on your mind, darling?" Zero Two asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She frowned. "You're a bad liar, darling. It's written all over your face. Not only that, you're on the ceiling from pacing again."

I looked around and realized I was, in fact, upside down. I really need to stop that.

"You're too observant," I teased, getting a laugh from my partner. "I'm just...worried. They could come back at any moment and we don't have any way of defending ourselves."

Zero Two stood up and cupped my cheeks in her hands. "I worry about that too, darling. But there's not much we can do about it right now. Come down here and finish your drawing."

I flipped myself down to the floor and picked up a piece of paper. "I uh...actually finished it a bit ago. Promise not to laugh?"

She nodded, and I handed her my most heartfelt artistic rendition of a figure of royal nobility, the pride of a nation.

Immediately, she burst into a fit of giggles, and I knew why. I was a terrible artist, especially compared to her almost photo-perfect copies of the picture book. I turned red, but she then hugged the picture to her chest. "I love it, darling. I can tell you put a lot of feelings into it."

"If only I could have put some talent into it, too." I replied, scratching the back of my head.

Zero Two laughed again, leaning forward and kissing my cheek softly. "That doesn't matter. You made it. And I appreciate all you do for me and the rest of us."

If I was red before, I was off the color scale at that comment.

* * *

Unfortunately, that's not where the story ends. Zero Two and I were woken up from slumber as we heard an angry yell from Ikuno.

"Why is she up so early?!" Zero Two groaned.

"I don't know," I muttered, groggily pulling myself up.

But as we made our way down the stairs and out to the garden, we could see why she, and now the rest of our squad, was upset.

Our crops had been destroyed, and looking at the footprints all over the garden, it wasn't done by an animal.

"Oh no..." Ichigo muttered. "Damn it. All of our hard work!"

"They're taking the indirect approach." Goro rubbed his chin. "Eventually we'll need to give in to them if we run out of food and means to sustain ourselves."

"What do we now?" Ikuno asked, looking to Ichigo.

"We can't go back to them," Ichigo answered immediately. "But I'm not sure how we get Papa off of our back. What about you guys...?"

The question was directed to myself and Zero Two, as evident by the multiple pairs of eyes boring into us.

After an uncomfortable pause, I shifted, nervously. "I...have an idea. But I don't like it."

"It can't be any dumber than the ideas you usually have," Goro replied, half-joking.

"I was thinking about teaming up with the Klaxosaur Princess to take down Papa," I blurted out.

Even Zero Two gave me an incredulous look.

"Nevermind," Goro groaned, "that's the dumbest thing you've ever even thought of."

"Darling, you saw what that creature did to those Sages," Zero Two said, slowly, "are you sure about that?"

"I'm not," I admitted, "but we know Papa's been keeping information about her and the magma energy from us. And if the civilization and what we've been doing the last month prove anything, it's that we don't even need magma energy to live."

"But that would be teaming with the enemy!" Zorome cried, "Our whole deal is killing the Klaxosaurs."

"Yeah, well, look where it landed us." I answered with a shrug. "I think there's more to life than Piloting Franxx. Hasn't the last month felt...I don't know, more meaningful than the rest of our lives? Actually learning how to live peacefully and sustain ourselves? I mean flying robots are cool and all but..."

"He makes a good point," Ikuno agreed, albeit a bit begrudgingly. "We've gone our whole lives piloting for Papa, only to be abandoned once he got what he wanted. But what on earth makes you think she'll listen?"

"I'm just hoping she hates Papa more than she hates a few random people trying to live without Magma," I answered in earnest. "It's a gamble, but I mean...do we have any better options?"

Everyone went quiet.

"Darling..." Zero Two grabbed my hand, whispering in my ear. "I want to go with you."

I smiled at her. "Of course."

"When..." Ichigo began, struggling a bit with accepting the plan, "when were you planning on doing this?"

I shrugged. "No time like the present, right?"

* * *

Within an hour, Zero Two and I were trudging back to the Grand Crevasse. I suited up, just in case I needed to sling webs if things went bad, and to be honest I expected them to.

"Kinda weird to be going on a mission like this outside of Strelizia, right?" I asked.

Zero Two nodded, giving me a small smile. "You were right though. As weird as it feels, I suppose I don't miss it. And here I thought it was the only way to find my darling." She grabbed my hand as we walked.

"Paid off in the end," I teased. "Just a few road bumps." Like the time I died!

As we approached the Grand Crevasse, we noticed the ship that had been stranded weeks ago had been removed at some point. "In hindsight, we probably should have stolen that ship if everything was going to go to shit anyway," I sighed.

"I think I'm rubbing off on you, darling," Zero Two laughed, "You'd never have stolen a ship when we first met."

"Hey. I'm Mr. Adventure, remember?" I replied, in faux-defensiveness. But my face and general sense of humor fell once we reached the elevator platform, largely unused since we came across it a few weeks back; my Inner Alarm began to buzz, steadily.

Zero Two must have noticed, folding her hands behind her back. "Sensing danger, darling?"

I nodded. "Maybe...maybe you should stay up here." She went to object but I added, "If something goes wrong, someone needs to go back and warn the others."

She frowned, but reached forward and grabbed my hands. "Darling...I might not have whatever weird spider-guy-sense you have, but I have a bad feeling about sending you down there alone. I'm not ever going to leave your side either."

Well damn. She's good. "What if something...whatever's down there rips us apart?"

She just smiled back. "Then we'll find each other."

Damn, she's REALLY good at this. I can't say no to that. "Okay...together then."

We stepped on to the elevator platform, and it lurched to life, giving us a slow descent to the bottom. The whole ride, the ringing in my skull grew, and pinched the bridge of my nose to relieve some of the pressure.

"Be ready." I whispered.

The minutes crawled by until, finally, the platform came to a stop at the bottom of the pit. Despite being far from the sunlight, the walls were illuminated by strange, glowing blue rocks. Zero Two offered me her hand, and I took it as we began walking down a large tunnel.

"Have you thought about what you're going to say to her, darling?" Zero Two asked, curiously.

I opened my mouth to answer, but suddenly, the buzzing in my head turned into an ear-splitting vibration, stopping me in my tracks as I doubled over. Looking over, it appeared like it had hit Zero Two the same way as she grabbed her ears.

As the vibrating subsided, it was replaced by a voice - a voice plugging straight into our heads.

"You are not welcome here!"

I stood up straight, trying to grit my teeth to catch my bearings and get my nerves about me. "We just came to talk! We mean no harm!"

The voice laughed in our heads, causing Zero Two and I to exchange uncomfortable looks. "The last of you humans who came to talk tried to stick some pointy metal into my head. And they weren't nearly as offensive as you dreck."

This was going smoothly. "Offensive?" Zero Two asked, confused.

My Inner Alarm buzzed, much more clear this time, and I grabbed Zero Two and jumped to the side. A black, snake-like tentacle shot through the tunnel, right where she had been standing.

"YOU BRING THIS COPY INTO MY HOME, FLAUNTING THE CREATIONS OF THAT MONSTROUS HUMAN?!"

"Oh this might have been a mistake." I muttered.

Zero Two looked much more shocked, a haunted expression in her eyes as she parrotted, "Copy?"

Another tentacle shot at us. Zero Two jumped out of the way, but I jumped up, stomping down on the tentacles and webbed it to the floor. It struggled against my hold on it, and I heard a growl in my head. "W-wait!" I cried, "We're looking to make a deal with you, please listen!"

I was answered as a black tentacle emerged from the darkness and smacked me into the cave wall. I wheezed in pain as I collapsed along the floor.

"Darling!" Zero Two called for me, and ran over. A tentacle swung for her, but she acrobatically flipped over it, and rolled under a second one. She pulled me to my feet.

"We need to work together," I panted. "Can you lead the tentacles to the wall?"

As I asked, one came careening towards us. She ducked, and I flipped over it, in mid air turning and shooting as many webs as I could, sealing the tentacle to the cave wall. I landed, and Zero Two understood my plan of attack.

We began dashing through the tunnel, past the tentacles pegged to the wall and floor. Zero Two stuck to the opposite side, and out of nowhere another inky, black appendage shot from the darkness, but my partner jumped against the wall and kicked off of it, vaulting over it in the air. As the tentacle stuck against the rocks, I again showered it in webs, sticking in place as the roaring in our heads grew louder. "Come on, we really just need to talk to you!" I shouted in protest.

I flipped sideways in the air as a tentacles crashed into the floor where I had been standing, webbing it down as well. "How many of these do you have?!" I yelled in exasperation. "I mean it, we both want the same thing!"

"HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW WHAT I WANT?!"

A second tentacle smashed into my ribs in mid air, pressing me into the ground. Desperately, I shot a web to the wall and pulled myself free from under it, while Zero Two ran up, gloves off, and slashed at it.

Had her nails always looked like claws?

The voice in our heads yelled out in pain as Zero Two cut a chunk of the tentacle off, and without warning, all the tentacles I had sealed down ripped free and retreated into the cave. Four more emerged, dug into the wall, and brought a figure towards us, tentacles suspending her in the air to make it look like she was floating.

On instinct, Zero Two and I gathered together defensively.

"It's her..." Zero Two muttered.

"The Klaxosaur Princess..." I whispered.

The Klaxosaur Princess gave us a look of scathing hatred, and clutched the two of us by the throat with tentacles. At close range, neither of us had a chance to dodge; even My Inner alarm didn't go off until the grip was around my neck. "How insolent. You come here demanding an audience on behalf of Papa, and you bring me the dirty copy and someone who smells of tainted Klaxosaur blood?!"

I struggled against the powerful grip I was in as I choked for air; she thought we were with Papa. If we could just convince her we weren't, maybe we could get out of this alive.

The princess brought Zero Two close to her face, and I saw Zero Two's horns held close to the princess' own blue horns. "You...that murderous doctor made you from what he stole from me, didn't he?"

She snapped the tentacles, throwing Zero Two towards the ground, and I instinctively, caught my partner with a web line to break her fall. "And you," the princess sneered, holding me up to her face.

Despite the facial markings, and blue skin, I could see something of a resemblance to Zero Two. Was she right? Had the Doctor just grown Zero Two in a lab? I guess now wasn't the time to worry about such a thing.

The princess' eyes locked on my own horns. "And what are you supposed to be? Another hybrid? But you smell like human and tainted blood."

She leaned forward and licked my cheek, and her tongue burned my skin. "You taste like a Klaxosaur, human."

Perhaps it was curiosity that made her weaken her grip on my neck, but I was finally able to use my free hand to pull the tentacle open just enough for me to gasp and shout, "WE WANT TO KILL PAPA!"

The Princess froze up, and grabbed Zero Two by the waist, snapping her off my web line and holding her up to eye level. She wrapped a different tentacle around my own waist and let go of my neck as I gasped for breath.

"Explain yourselves." She commanded in our heads.

Thankfully, Zero Two was on top of this, "You heard him. We want nothing to do with Papa's operation anymore. The Franxx. The killing Klaxosaurs. The magma energy, none of it."

The look of malice on the princess' face returned. "You ignorant child. Don't you know what the magma energy is?!"

Zero Two and I exchanged glances and shrugged. "L... lava?" I answered, hesitantly.

"YOU FOOL!" Her voice echoed in my head. "Those are the bodies of my people!"

"What?!" Zero Two and I exclaimed at once.

"Long before you humans evolved, Klaxosapiens roamed the earth," the Klaxosaur Princess closed her eyes, and in my head I could see it, a mental projection, of blue skinned people living in things like the town we had seen at the beach. "Until we were invaded by the one you call Papa. But we know him...as Virm..."

Her eyes opened, ending the projection. "Do you know how long Papa has plagued my thoughts and existence? Thousands...thousands of years."

"He's...he's been alive that long?" I asked, bewildered. "They taught us it was only a few hundred."

"Indoctrination," the princess sneered, "a common fascist tyrannical approach. I'm baffled the two of you managed to see through it." She closed her eyes again, and we were treated to another mental projection.

I could see through the Klaxosaur Princess' eyes as she watched Papa, or at least a twisted version of him, approaching a crowd of Klaxosapiens, people like her. As he approached, people began to just drop like flies in his presence, as he sucked their very souls, their very essence from their bodies.

"He came from the stars, feeding off our souls, harvesting us to grow his power," The Klaxosaur Princess explained, her tone far more morose than before, "after a power struggle, we were forced to retreat underground."

"Papa's from the stars?" Zero Two echoed. "He's not human, then?"

We could hear the princess scoff in our heads. "Of course not. Virm is a Soul Harvester, a being from beyond. As we retreated underground, beyond his reach, we vowed to be ready for his return. Some of us evolved into energy...the magma energy you harvested. The others evolved to defend ourselves from his eventual return. The beings you call Klaxosaurs."

"Oh," I admitted, quietly. And to think we had been so happy to slaughter them.

My bad.

"Tell me, human spider," Klaxosaur Princess looked at me. "How do you plan to kill Virm?"

"I uh..." I stuttered.

"We plan to bring him to you, so you can enact your revenge," Zero Two replied, smoothly.

"Yeah that." I agreed.

A sinister smile crept up the face of the princess. "You will bring me the one called Papa? Alright, human and copy...I will strike a deal with you."

I felt a wave of relief hit me, though I was still apprehensive to a degree; she could still kill me if she wanted to. "What are your terms?"

"I will give you the means to reach Virm and his stooges," she advised, "and you will bring him to me. Bring the others if you wish, but as long as I have Virm, I will allow you to live in peace on the surface...provided you never harvest magma energy again."

Zero Two and I looked to each other and nodded. "It's a deal," Zero Two replied.

"Excellent." The sinister grin appeared on her face once more. "You should leave immediately."

"Well," I swallowed, not wanting to piss off the super powered tentacle woman, "we need to go let our team know."

"That's why you should leave now," the princess replied. "While you were gone, your team was kidnapped by his men. Your friends are in the hands of the enemy, copy and tainted human. So I ask again: are you ready to depart?"


	18. With Great Power

**Disclaimer: This is purely a fanwork and I own nothing**

* * *

Zero Two and I stood at the front of our home building, and I clasped my hands over my mouth. The princess hadn't lied; the place had been ransacked.

"They were waiting for us to leave," Zero Two muttered, forlorn realization hitting her.

I examined the broken windows, running my hands through my hair. Everything, everyone was gone. "This is..."

I stopped. There wasn't a good word to finish that sentence with, nothing that described the hollowness in my heart.

Sadly, Zero Two and I grabbed each other's hands and walked back to the Klaxosaur Princess, who was standing by an odd ship of sorts.

In addition to evolving, they had apparently begun building, "flying machines," as she referred to them, in case the soul harvester returned...however, they were not prepared for the evolution of the human species to get manipulated and drill for magma energy themselves.

"Such petty carnage," the Klaxosaur Princess tutted in our heads. "All because eight children didn't want to play nice. Tyranny. Now do you understand, human and copy?"

She opened the door to her ship. "This will take you to him. Bring him back to me, alive, and you will be left to live in peace."

Zero Two and I nodded, wordlessly. For once in my life, I was at a loss for words.

"Good," the princess nodded, "I have no doubts they will be expecting you. So you may want to be prepared for a fight...more than the one you gave me, preferably."

"We'll be ready," I replied, a little bit more bite on my words than I intended. The hole in my chest was beginning to fill with anger, with hatred towards our upbringings.

She smirked. "Good. I look forward to your success. Or failure. I suppose it matters not to me."

On her tentacles, she began clawing back to the Grand Crevasse, leaving us to our fate.

"I'm not sure how I feel about her, darling," Zero Two folded her arms, disdain dripping from her tongue.

"Same here," I admitted, "but I know how I feel about the bastards who did this."

She flashed a sadistic grin at me. "Let's make them pay, darling."

I pulled something from my back pocket; a Spider-Man mask of my own creation, though I added to holes for my horns. "Yeah. Let's get our friends back."

She looked at the mask, quizzically. "You know everyone knows you're the Spider-Man, darling."

I pulled the fabric over my head. "I know, it just...it makes me feel stronger than I normally am."

She leaned over to me, and pulled the bottom of the mask up to kiss me. As she pulled away, she smiled. "I love you with or without it, darling."

"Thanks," I turned my expression more serious. "Now come on. We've got a job to do."

As we stepped into the Klaxosaur ship, it sprang to life on it's own; apparently it had been made to seek out Papa or Virm or whatever she called him, and bring the fight to him.

"You really think we can do this?" I asked my partner.

She grabbed my hand and grinned. "Remember what I said last time we flew? We can do anything if we're together."

I laughed. "Yeah. You're right. We'll get our friends back and bring that asshole down."

As we approached the tower in the distance, I told my partner something that had been on my mind since we got in the ship. "Growing up, they always told us about the Sky Sanctuary that Papa and the Sages lived in, watching over us to protect the Adults from the Klaxosaur menace. We were told all sorts of wonderful things about their tower in the sky - like it was this place of joy and serenity, that nothing bad could get you there, that there was no strife there. But obviously, none of us were ever allowed as imperfect, dirty Children."

Zero Two gave a small snort of amusement. "Like everything else you were taught, the tower is nothing like that, darling. Though, I only ever went a few times. Most of the time they called Alpha there as our leader." She leaned back in her chair. "I was too much of a troublemaker."

"You? A troublemaker?" I teased. "I don't see it."

She stuck her tongue out at me in response.

The banter was interrupted as my Inner Alarm rang, and I looked out the front window. The Tower had its own defense systems, just like the Plantation. Turrets began pointing at our ship and opened fire, rocking the vessel and throwing us to the ground. I sprang up to the control panel, using my powers to grip to the floor and console, and looked for some sort of defense mechanism.

Unfortunately, the Klaxosaurs had some weird language I didn't know how to read. What is fortunate, is that the defenses for the ship were automated, just like everything else. Lasers began firing from our ship, hitting the turrets with miraculous accuracy.

"Why did they even need Klaxosaur creatures if they had lasers?!" I griped as the ship rocked further.

We were outgunned, and I ducked behind the control panel as the glass begin to crack and splinter under gunfire. I dove backwards, scuttling across the ground towards Zero Two as the control panel itself began to spark and crack.

I slipped an arm around her midsection. "I don't think the ride is going to make it, sweetheart."

"Do you have a plan, darling?" She asked. How she stayed so cool under pressure, I'd never know.

"Well, they need to think we're dead," I rationalized, watching the control panel heat up with sparks. "So I have an idea, but it's really stupid. You trust me, right?"

"Of course!"

"Okay, hold on to my back and don't. Let. Go."

She did so, and I began webbing up the control panel, sealing up all the heat. Alarms began to blare, including the one in my head.

I had to time this just right to make it so Papa would believe we'd die, so I crouched against the back wall as the engine began to fail.

My Inner Alarm spiked, and I used my slingshot web move, where I used to web lines on the sides of the windshield, and kicked through the window, to break out of the ship. Once we cleared it, the ship exploded behind us, propelling us towards the tower.

I held my breath as the turrets stopped firing, and I shot another web line, swinging down and sticking to the building.

"Are you okay?!" I asked Zero Two as soon as I found my grip, , panting and shaking with nerves.

She just squeezed my chest as she held onto me. "I have the coolest darling."

"Well I'm glad YOU enjoyed that, that was terrifying," I replied with a snicker as I began scaling the building. "We need to find a way in, they'll find us if we stay out here...Ah yes!"

I beamed as I found an access vent in the building. "My greatest allies, air vents!"

Zero Two cleared her throat from my back. "S-second greatest allies," I corrected myself.

"That's better," she teased, climbing from my back into the vent, and I followed.

We traversed the vent until we found a deserted hallway, and descended, their vents much more narrow than what I was used to. "Any chance we can find a map?"

Zero Two smiled at me. "Well, you said it was a Sky Sanctuary, right? We should find a way to the top."

I nodded. "Makes sense. Let's see if we can find an elevator."

As we stalked along the hallway, we stopped as we heard voices coming from around the corner.

"Papa thinks they may have left. Make a sweep of the whole building if you have to!"

It was Nine Alpha, and he was approaching fast. Quickly, I grabbed Zero Two and jumped to ceiling. He walked under us, speaking into some sort of walkie talkie. Without warning, Zero Two squirmed free from me and pounced, landing right on top of Alpha and slamming his head into the floor, knocking him out. She grabbed his walkie talkie and crushed it in her hands.

"That was maybe the hottest thing I've ever seen," I said, landing next to her. "We should be careful though."

Hand in hand, we took to halls, finding the elevator shaft. As I mashed the button, my Alarm went off again as the light above the door lit up.

"Someone's coming," I whispered.

"Well then, I'll distract them," Zero Two grinned, "and you take them out. It's no fun if I'm the only one who gets any action, darling."

Nodding, I clung myself to the ceiling once more. Zero Two backed up, placed her hands behind her back, and gave a coy smile as the elevator slid open. Nine Delta and Epsilon charged forward the second they saw her.

"Long time no see, guys," Zero Two said.

"Where's-" Nine Delta began, but that was as far as I got as I sprung down on her, slamming her face into the floor like Zero Two had done moments before. Epsilon swung for me, but I shot a glob of webbing in his face, booted him against the wall, and stuck him there, unable to move or speak.

"Three down," I grinned, as my partner and I stepped onto the elevator, hitting the button for the top floor. "Easy enough."

Our hands snaked together once more as the elevator began its steady rise, tension rising in my chest as we climbed floor by floor. Looking over, even Zero Two's usually confident face seemed anxious.

As the lift grinded to a halt, we were met to a plain, white hallway. At the end of the sterile corridor, a door slid open as we approached. Neither of us could have anticipated what we would see inside.

The room itself was a circular, glass room that looked down on the world, held in place by the hallway we had come from. Seated in a semi-circular conference table, facing the door, were the Sages. Papa, in the middle, sat in an elevated seat, slouching in a bored fashion as the two of us charged forward. But we halted in our tracks as we saw our teammates there.

Physically, Squad 13 was no worse for wear. But each of them wore a vacant, glassy expression across their faces. "Guys...?" I gasped out, confused and terrified.

Momentarily forgetting the creepy old corrupt rulers we were there to fight, we ran over to our teammates. I grabbed Goro's shoulders and shook him lightly, with no response.

"What did you do to them?!" Zero Two cried out, waving her hand frantically in Ichigo's face.

The Sages all chuckled as they looked down on us from their perched seats.

"Don't worry." Papa replied, calmly. "They're happy now...with me."

"Nothing about that sentence makes me worry less!" I shouted, clenching my fists. "What's going on?!"

One of the Sages began to speak, but barely said the word, "Papa," before the man himself boomed, "SILENCE!"

"You're aware of my nature, by now," Papa drawled, sounding bored already.

My eyes widened under my mask. "It's true then? About...being a soul harvester?"

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO PAPA THAT WAY!" One of the Sages shouted from behind some weird primate mask.

In a flash, this masked Sage lunged for me, blades emerging from their sleeves. I prepared a fighting stance, as did Zero Two, but Papa barked, "STOP!"

The Sage froze, and Papa rose from his seat slowly. "I grow weary of this game. Quite frankly, I have obtained enough magma energy from this dying rock, and you two are far too troublesome." He chuckled. "The souls of your friends were just a perfect dessert to remind you who is in control. My Sages...I think it's time you join me in Eternal Eden."

It was the Sages' turn to act shocked, all of them raising their voices in protest, but before any of us could move a blinding white light filled the room. Zero Two and I both covered our eyes reflexively.

When we looked back, the Sages dropped to the ground as orbs of light flew from their bodies into Papa. His robe discarded, he stood, eight feet tall, a glowing, purple body that was both made of light and solid. Just looking at him hurt, as if my brain couldn't comprehend this level of being. On his chest stood what looked a diamond-shaped mask, the same pattern of the mask he had worn as Papa. The orbs of light, the souls of the sages, flew into that mask as he stood.

"Behold my true form, humans," he spoke, in a thousand voices that shook the entire room.

"P-Papa?"

I whirled around to see the Nines, even the ones we had trapped earlier, had emerged into the room. For once, Nine Alpha did not sound cocky. There was nothing but confusion in his voice.

"Did you know about this?!" Zero Two screamed to him.

The Nines all stood, frozen in terror, and the being that we had called Papa.

But no. This was Virm, wasn't it? This was the being Klaxosaur Princess told us about, his true form.

"Good luck on this dying rock," Virm sneered.

He raised his arm, and in a rush of what I could only assume was psychic energy, myself, Zero Two, the Nines, and the bodies of my Squad mates were blown back into the hallway as the circular room began to shake.

From the hallway, I saw the room we had just left began to move as Papa accessed a control panel.

My Inner Alarm screamed in my ears, and I realized why that room was disjointed: It was an escape pod.

I sprang towards the door as it began closing so the pod could lift off, but I was stopped as Zero Two grabbed my hand. "Darling wait!"

I turned to meet her eyes, and she ripped the mask off my face head, so her gaze could meet mine.

Ugh. She was really good at knowing how to hit me deep.

"Let me come with you."

I only had a split second to make this decision, and it was possibly the most selfish one I ever made.

"No," I broke my hand free, "I can't let you get hurt it this doesn't work. Please protect the others!"

I turned before she could stop me, and shot a web line onto the control panel in the escape pod room. I pulled myself forward, just barely getting through the heavy steel door as it slammed shut.

"I'm sorry, Zero Two," I mumbled as I heard her shout for me beyond the sealed door.

Virm looked up, shocked, and I punched him across his glowing, purple, featureless face. I didn't relent, landing on the control panel. I jumped off and hit a spinning back kick on his face, but it didn't seem to phase him at all, shock of me hitching a ride wearing off.

He swatted at me, backhanded as if I was an insect. Even with my Inner Alarm warning me, he moved too fast for me to dodge, and the impact sent me flying into a glass window. I could feel it crack under my weight as the ship began to dart across the sky.

"Code 016," Virm sneered, "Doctor Franxx's favorite pet project." He turned away from me, clearly not threatened in the least by my presence. "A disgusting creature. I look forward to watching you suffocate in the vacuum of space."

As he began typing on the control panel, I shot a web line to his shoulder and pulled, desperately, but the alien didn't budge. With an annoyed grunt, he grabbed my web line and pulled me towards him instead. I was pulled through the air, and was met with a giant fist to my cheek, throwing me into another window, which cracked as well.

Through my blurred vision, I could see the Grand Crevasse approaching below us.

I could never take him in a fight. I only had one shot at this, and I realized it as I slowly pulled myself off the floor.

The ship tilted to gain speed, and I knew it was now or never.I jumped, and shot a web at Virm's back, and as he turned, I swung myself around the entire room, latching onto the ceiling, and shot another web to the back of the control panel. I pulled, pulling off the entire protective casing.

"What are you doing?!" Virm shouted, a bit of panic in his voice. He lunged for me, but even with his speed, I was ready as I dove over him, landing on the floor, and covering all the electrical wire in the control panel with webbing.

It was over in a few seconds; the webbing covered the wires and began to heat the console. It sparked and cracked, and I jumped over to one of the cracked windows, bracing myself for the -

BOOM!

As the escape pod exploded in the air, no amount of bracing could prepare me for the deafening sound as I was pushed out of already weakened window. I could feel a few cuts along my chest and arms, but thankfully the enhanced durability of a spider kept me in one piece. Better than being completely defenestrated.

As my vision returned and my ears stopped ringing, I of course had the new problem to worry about of free falling towards the Grand Crevasse. More importantly, where was Papa?!

"YOU!"

I was grabbed by the collar by Virm, who was falling through the air behind me. "YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING! CODE 016!" He punched me towards the Grand Crevasse, and I tumbled through the air. But as I did, I got a good look at the scene above me.

As Virm fell through the air, the ruins of his escape pod scattered in the air above me.

Including a large, steel, radio communication needle.

You know, I used to compare myself to a flightless bird sometimes. Right now, I could use my partner and some flight.

But right now, I was a spider, and this was the web I wove with my choices.

"YOU WILL FAIL, CODE 016!" Virm screamed. "I WILL RISE AGAIN, AND YOU WILL DIE A SMEAR AGAINST THE DIRT, ALONE!"

"Probably not," I coughed. "I'm annoyingly persistent."

I shot a webline upwards, gravity assisting me as it splattered against his face. I pulled him downwards and launched myself up past him. I disconnected that line and shot two more on the communication needle.

It took all of my strength to twist in the air and fling the needle, striking it into the mask on Virm's chest, piercing him. He left out a scream of pain in his many voices, and I could see multiple orbs of light begin to fly out of him.

The souls! That's where he kept them!

I narrowed my body to fall faster and pounded against the base of the needle, driving it deeper as the Grand Crevasse rocketed closer to us as well.

"ALL YOU SOULS...I GAVE YOU PERFECTION! PEACE! ETERNAL EDEN!" Virm screamed in pain as we entered the cavern, the walls of the Grand Crevasse swallowing us in darkness.

My eyes began to dart around. If I didn't figure something out, I was going to be a stain on the pavement after all.

Ahead of us, a pipe stabilizing the elevator platform reached across the entire Crevasse.

Still attached to the communication needle. I placed my hand on Virm's foot and attached the strongest web I could muster, and jumped off.

The middle of the web line caught the support beam, leaving Virm hanging upside down. I used the moment as I kept falling to swing up and around the pipe a few times, until finally I stopped, hanging upside down a few feet above Virm.

I panted, and the alien began to laugh. "You foolish boy...you should have let us both fall! How do you plan to finish me now?!"

My Inner Alarm began to buzz, but this time, it was different. A slow grin crept across my face. "I'm not."

A black tentacle shot from the darkness, impaling Virm's throat as he screamed in pain. Another followed, ripping into his torso as the communication exploded from him.

The Klaxosaur Princess climbed up the side of the Crevasse with her other tentacles. She ripped Virm from my webbing, and I quickly web-lined myself to the opposing wall of the cave.

A sadistic smirk etched across her face as she held the struggling body of Papa close to her. "Oh, my old friend...we're going to have fun."

She glanced behind him, over to me. "Good work, human. Perhaps you're not all so bad. Good luck on the surface..." A giggle escaped her lips as she began descending into the Crevasse, Papa shouting and screaming, fear in his thousand voices, and the Princess' laugh turned into a full blown cackle.

After a moment, both voices turned silence.

And it was followed by a bloodcurdling scream in one thousand voices.

I leaned against the wall to catch my breath, and looked up at the Crevasse.

"She could have at least given me a lift out of here," I groaned, and I began to climb up once my heart stopped pounding in my ears.

* * *

It took the entire day to climb out of the pit of the Grand Crevasse, and as I finally hit the surface, a wave of relief washed over me to see Zero Two and my entire squad there, waiting for me.

"DARLING!"

Zero Two tackled me into a hug, almost knocking us back down into the pit, and before I could say anything, she pressed her lips against mine, tears streaming down her face.

"I'm - o - kay." I assured her between kisses.

She rested her horns against mine, smiling from ear to ear. "Darling...I'm going to make you pay for ditching me later," despite the words, the happiness in her voice was palpable.

"It will be worth it, I'm sure." I replied as I put my arms around her waist.

As she pulled away, the rest of my squad squashed me in to what I could only describe as the biggest group hug I could have imagined.

"Hiro, you fucking idiot!" Goro cheered through tears of joy amongst the other cries of my teammates.

I gave an exhausted laugh. "Yeah. That was pretty dumb."

* * *

From there, it wasn't easy, but we began to rebuild, starting at the abandoned town by the beach we had vacationed to all those weeks ago. We figured it would be easier to fix up old buildings as opposed to making new ones from scratch.

Dr. Franxx, Nana, and Hachi, were there waiting for us, to our shock. Once I had prevented the Nines from taking Kokoro and Mitsuru, the doctor suspected what would happen, and took our two caretakers to, "get the hell out of dodge," in his own words.

He explained his role in APE's stronghold of the earth, and perhaps in atonement, began to teach us how to live a life without magma energy; primitive electricity, irrigation systems for crops, and other things we would need to build a life for himself.

This by no means was easy; no, it took us about two years to get life up to a place where we could live independently. Perhaps he held out all that time for us, because it seemed like he died shortly after.

The Nines, who had decided to live with us and assist to atone for their treatment of us, left not long after. With no one to maintain them, they decided to wander the earth with what time remained.

That wasn't the only thing to change in the short amount of time; it turns out a big problem with the wedding we held was because Kokoro was pregnant. Months after we began rebuilding, she gave birth, and all of us began scavenging for any knowledge or books on babies we could find. As it turned out, they were a shit ton of work. Still, Kokoro and Mitsuru never looked as happy as when they were with their daughter, Ai.

And when I look at my friends in their new lives: Ikuno as a doctor, Futoshi as a baker, Miku, Zorome, and Ichigo as teachers, Zero Two and myself as hunters, and all the other children the Doctor had stored taking new roles, I knew this was the peace I felt was unobtainable for most of my life.

But it was obtainable, if you had the will for it to be.

* * *

"And...there!" I smiled to myself, closing the book. "All finished!"

I stood up and stretched. A year after rebuilding, I decided to chronicle my adventures as the Spider-Man of Plantation 13 in a memoir. It took a month or so to write, but I finally finished it.

I cracked open the windows of the house I shared with Zero Two, and I saw Zero Two outside with Goro and Ichigo.

"Good fishing today, Zero Two," Ichigo beamed. "I'll beat you next time!"

Zero Two laughed. "That will be the day, bossy."

"Say hi to Hiro for us," Goro smiled. "Are you guys joining us for dinner tomorrow?" He quickly added, "we'll have harvested the honey by then."

"Then we'll be there!"

I snickered as I heard my wife enter the house. "Darling! I'm back!" Tucking my book under my arm I went downstairs to greet her.

As she put her fish in the icebox and set her pole down, I asked, "So, did you win?"

"As always," she replied, confidently putting her hands on her hips. "I wish you had joined us though, darling. It's always more fun."

I rolled my eyes. "It's okay, but it gets a little old to keep coming back empty handed."

"That's what makes it fun," she teased, walking over to me, and giving me a kiss on the cheek. She spotted the book under my arm, and tilted her head. "Were you working on your story?"

I beamed. "It's finished."

Her eyes lit up with excitement; when I told her I was writing a book about our adventures together, she had begun drawing pictures of the things we had been through, which I promised I would incorporate into the book. She squeezed my hand and jumped up and down. "It's done?! You have to let me read it and see if there are more picture to add!"

I laughed. "Okay, okay. Want to take it to the park, sweetheart?"

I didn't have to ask twice; Zero Two was already pulling me out the door. "Come, darling!"

* * *

"It's amazing, darling!" Zero Two squealed, hugging the book to her chest. "That's what you should call it! The Amazing Spider-Man."

I chuckled. "Yeah? You think people will really want to read about that?"

It was her turn to roll her eyes at me. "They loved the the picture book we recreated."

"Mostly because of your drawings."

"Hush darling, you wrote beautifully," she pinched my cheeks, teasingly.

Sitting under our tree, a mistletoe tree we had found, we looked out to see Kokoro, pregnant again, with Ai. They were cooing over Zorome and Miku's baby. I couldn't help but smile at the sight, but I looked over to see Zero Two was looking at the same thing, looking a bit sad. "You okay, Zero Two?"

She glanced at me and snaked her fingers into mine. "I just...do you...do you regret that we can't have kids?"

I cupped her cheek with my free hand and brought her face to mine, giving her a deep kiss. In the distance, I could hear Zorome yell, "get a room," only to immediately be scolded by Kokoro and Miku.

As I broke away, I smiled to my partner. "Zero Two, where would the fun in raising a kid be if I couldn't do it with you?"

A smile spread across her cheeks as she rested her head on my shoulder. "You're really good at saying embarrassing things, darling."

"Well, not having to be Spider-Man gives me time to practice." I nuzzled my chin to her hair. "I love you."

"I love you too, darling."

* * *

 **THE END**

 **It's been an honor, guys**


End file.
